Here’s a snapshot of the presentations made, events hosted, and honors received by the talented and dedicated staff of the Hogg Foundation during the month of July 2025.
Tammy Heinz, senior program officer and community and family liaison, and Rick Ybarra, senior program officer, facilitated the 2025 Annual Grant Partner Meeting for the Collaborative Approaches to Well-Being in Rural Communities (WRC) initiative in Victoria, TX July 15-16, 2025. Grant partners gathered for information sharing, networking, highlighting accomplishments this past year, and professional development (training; technical assistance) to support all five WRC community collaboratives. Dr. Kelley Glover, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, provided supplementary consultation during the annual meeting.
“Also in attendance at the WRC Grant Partner Meeting were Alison Mohr Boleware, director of policy, Jason Castillo, policy specialist, and Maddie Garza, policy fellow. They presented to the WRC grant partners on “Advocacy: Amplifying Community Voice to Influence Change.” Amy Loar, assistant director of programs and director of the Texas Grants Research Center, presented on Resource Development + Sustainability” to the group.
In a Recovery Oriented Systems of Care monthly meeting Alison, Jason, and Maddie presented a legislative session summary for members of the Morris County Collaborative, a participant in the WRC initiative.
Lexi Arons, grants manager, and Ed Reed, systems administrator, participated in the Fluxx Meets Austin Regional User Meeting and Thought Leadership Session. The meeting brought together representatives from a variety of organizations, including the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, and the Texas Veterans Commission, to share how they’re using the Fluxx grants management system to overcome challenges, uncover best practices, and inspire new ideas, including the use of generative AI in grant making.
Elizabeth Stauber, archivist and records manager, facilitated one virtual meeting as part of the ongoing Dialogues on Mental Health Records project. Professionals associated with the hospital industry provided feedback on issues surrounding the preservation and accessibility of historical public mental health records.
In collaboration with Elizabeth, Carissa Ceasor, undergraduate student employee from the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts, curated a lobby exhibit highlighting the foundation’s School of the Future demonstration project. Running from 1990-1995, the project provided funding to elementary and middle schools in four Texas cities to deliver a range of health and human services, with a focus on early intervention and prevention, to low-income students and their families.
Ike Evans, communications manager, was selected by RecoveryPeople as the 2025 RecoveryPeople Annual Awards Media Award of the Year recipient. RecoveryPeople is a past recipient of the foundation’s Peer Policy Fellows grant. With the support of Hogg Communications Team members Kate Rooni and Darrell Wiggins, Ike assisted the promotion of Humanly Possible, a documentary film produced by RecoveryPeople with funding from the Hogg Foundation. The promotion included a podcast interview.
