Board of Directors

Michael L. Klein is engaged in independent oil and gas exploration and production in Midland. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BS in petroleum engineering in 1958 and an LLB in 1963. While attending law school, he worked summers as a petroleum engineer with Continental Oil Company and later served as an attorney for the company. He divides his time between Houston, Austin and Santa Fe. He serves as chair of the Blanton Museum of Art National Leadership Board and the University of Texas Press Advisory Council. He is a member of the Longhorn Foundation and is on the development board of The University of Texas at Austin and the board of trustees of The Contemporary Austin. He has previously served on the SITE Santa Fe board of directors, as a member on the board of trustees for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Chinati Foundation (Marfa); the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City); the Cate School (Carpinteria, California); and as the chair of the board at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

G. Hughes Abell is founder and general partner of Llano Partners Ltd., a family partnership with ranching, farming, and cattle-feeding operations in Texas and New Mexico. In addition, he actively manages private investments in oil & gas, timber, and commercial real estate. He currently serves on the board and executive committee of the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. He is also on the board of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board and the Texas Livestock Marketing Association. He is a trustee of St. Edward's University, the Texas Water Foundation, and the Texas State History Museum Foundation. He is a former vice-chairman of the Lower Colorado River Authority, and a past chairman of the board of trustees of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. He is a 1972 graduate of Vanderbilt University. He and his wife, Betsy, reside in Austin and are the parents of two children.

Sharon Allison served on the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Governing Council and was the chairperson of the Western Hemisphere Board.  Sharon is past chairperson of both Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. In 1994, she served as a delegate to the UN Conference on Population and Development and, in 1995, was a delegate to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. She served as president of the Junior League of Waco and chairman of the Waco Community Foundation.  She is a former director of the St. Paul’s School board, The Guttmacher Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Health board of visitors, and Americans for the UNFPA.  She currently is a director of Pathfinder International, a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas, The McLennan Community College Foundation board, board member of the Junior League of Waco (sustainer representative), and The University of Texas Liberal Arts Foundation as well as the Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee.

Albert S. Broussard is professor of history at Texas A&M University, where he has taught since 1985. During the Spring 2005 semester, he served as the Langston Hughes Professor of American Studies at the University of Kansas. A graduate of Stanford University (1973) and Duke University (1975, 1977), where he received his doctoral degree, he has published Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900–1954; African American Odyssey: The Stewarts, 1853–1963; Expectations of Equality: African Americans in the American West; American History: The Early Years to 1877; and The American Republic Since 1877 and The American Vision (co-authored with James McPherson, Alan Brinkley, Joyce Appleby, and Donald Ritchie). He is past president of the Oral History Association, a former chair of the nominating committee of the Organization of American Historians, and an active member of the historical profession. In 1997, he received a distinguished teaching award from Texas A&M University and was selected as a Texas A&M University Distinguished Lecturer for 1999–2000. He has served on the Faculty Senate, the Texas A&M Honorary Degree Committee, the University Publications Committee, the Texas A&M Press advisory board, and as associate head of the history department and graduate director. He is also a consultant to the National Park Service on their Underground Railroad project and has written a pamphlet on antislavery and civil rights activity in California. He is writing a history of African Americans in the Far West from 1945 to the present.

Carolina Castillo Crimm is a retired professor of history from Sam Houston State University. She was born and brought up in Mexico City, Mexico, and came to the United States in 1963, finishing her BA at the University of Miami and her MA at Texas Tech University before earning her PhD from The University of Texas at Austin in Latin American History with Dr. Nettie Lee Benson. She taught on the high school level before starting at Sam Houston State University in 1992, where she won both local and statewide teaching awards, including the prestigious Piper Award as one of the best teachers in Texas. She has published De León: A Tejano Family History (University of Texas Press, 2004), The Hoffman Collection: San Diego at the Turn of the Century with Sara R. Massey (University of Texas Press, 2003), and Cabin Fever: The Roberts-Farris Cabin, A Campus, A Cabin, A Community, editor, (Texas Review Press, 2002). She has also published numerous introductions and chapters on Texas women, blacks, and Hispanics. As a retiree she is working on historical fiction novels that deal with Spanish and Mexican Texas during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Sean P. Cunningham is associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Texas Tech University. He teaches broadly in twentieth-century U.S. history, while specializing in the history of post-1945 American political culture. His geographic emphasis is on the American Sunbelt, Texas, in particular. Cunningham received his BA, MA, and MEd from Texas Tech University and his PhD from the University of Florida. His first book, Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right, was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2010 and won the Texas Tech University President’s Book Award in 2012. His second book, American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt: Conservative Growth in a Battleground Region, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2014.

Randy L. Diehl has served for forty years as a psychology professor at The University of Texas at Austin, studying how humans perceive speech and teaching hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. Since 2007, he has also demonstrated his passion for teaching and research as dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Under his leadership, a number of the college's programs and departments have gained national prominence, and he has vigorously promoted the humanities through a number of initiatives, including the Humanities Research Awards. He also championed efforts to build a new College of Liberal Arts building and led campus-wide initiatives, including a task force that sparked dramatic improvements in UT Austin graduation rates. Diehl earned his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Illinois and his doctorate from the University of Minnesota. He joined the UT Austin faculty in 1975 and served as psychology department chair from 1995 to 1999, leading a period of departmental expansion that included the construction of the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Building.

Julius Glickman is a Houston civic leader and attorney.  A native of Big Spring, he earned his BA in Plan II and his LLB at The University of Texas at Austin. He was student body president, an Outstanding Student, and a member of the Tejas Club, Silver Spurs, and Friars. An active alumnus, he has chaired the Development Board and the Chancellor’s Council and is the chair of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Development Board. He has also served on the Commission of 125 and is the chair for the College of Liberal Arts Advisory Council. In 2012, he was a recipient of the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest award given by the Texas Exes. He was also a founding member of the Blanton Museum Council. He has served as chair of the board of Humanities Texas and has chaired the board of Houston Public Radio. He is a member of the International Academy Trial Lawyers and a recipient of the Pro Bene Meritis Award from the College of Liberal Arts in 2008. 

Sibyl Avery Jackson is an executive producer, screenwriter, and member of the Writers Guild of America, West. She has vast experience as a writer, editor, researcher, and public and media relations specialist in the corporate and private sectors, as well as in public television and radio. Her background also includes being a researcher and editor at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, and a spokesperson for one of the largest wireless service providers where, in addition to public and media relations, she also developed and managed government relations and corporate giving. The latter experience inspired her to write an award-winning suspense/thriller novel, Degree of Caution. Most recently, she is an executive producer of the award-winning feature film The Retrieval. She has been active for many years in securing funding for various projects and has served on several boards, including the Be An Angel Fund and the Houston Museum of African American Culture. She has a BA in English from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and currently lives in Houston with her husband, Alfred, a University of Texas graduate and a managing partner in a private equity firm.

Becky McKinley is a professional caterer and owner of Dining by Design, a catering company through which she dedicates a portion of her time serving not-for-profit functions in the Amarillo area and working with culinary arts programs at local high schools. She is also an author and food journalist, and in addition to her regular contributions to Accent West magazine and other online and print publications, she is currently working on a cookbook about beef. Governor Rick Perry appointed her to the Texas Governor’s Commission for Women, where she is presently serving her fifth term. She was also appointed by First Lady of Texas Anita Perry to the Advisory Council for the Texas Conference for Women. She was honored in 2010 as Silent Samaritan of the Year and is the recipient of the 2010 Amarillo Area Women’s Forum Distinguished Service Award and 7 Who Care Award. She serves as a board member of the Samaritan Counseling Center, Laura W. Bush Institute for Women's Health Advisory Board, and Women's Philanthropy Fund. She has previously served as a board member of the Baptist Saint Anthony Hospital Foundation, Polk Street United Methodist Church, KACV Public Television, Junior League of Amarillo, Amarillo Symphony Guild, Harrington Cancer Center, and City of Amarillo Traffic Commission. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Texas Tech University.

Debbie Montford is known for being an energetic and effective community volunteer, an enthusiastic advocate for the arts, and a philanthropist. She currently serves as Vice Chair and Chair of Regents Rules Committee for the Texas Tech University System's Board of Regents (appointed in 2010 by Governor Perry). She is the immediate past chair of the Dolph and Janey Briscoe Western Art Museum (San Antonio) board of directors. She is an advisory director of the Plum Foundation, past chair of the Texas Cultural Trust Council (Austin) and currently serves on the board of governors for the UTHSC Cancer Therapy Research Center (San Antonio). She is a founding member of the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation, who developed the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts (San Antonio) and  past chair of the Cultural Facilities Committee appointed by the Bexar County Commissioners.  She is former chair of the San Antonio Symphony Board of Directors, and a member of the Texas Women for the Arts. She is a current member and former president of the Texas Senate Ladies Club,  member of Texas Tech University Chancellor’s Council, Matador Society, and Sociedad de la Espuela. In 2010, she was honored by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce with the Hope Award for philanthropic fundraising. She received the 2013 Champion of the Arts Award presented by Texas Monthly in association with Texas Women for the Arts. She attended Texas Tech University and The University of Texas at Austin.

Ellen K. Ramsey is a partner of Ramsey Petroleum, LP. Ramsey is an education committee member for the Midland Chamber of Commerce, board member and treasurer for the Midland County Public Library Foundation, board member for the I-20 Wildlife Preserve & Jenna Welch Nature Study Center, a committee member for the City of Midland Hotel/Motel Tax Advisory Board, and Junior League of Midland sustainer. She was previously a board member for the George W. Bush Childhood Home, Inc., and is a former District Director for State Senator Kel Seliger. Ramsey attended Baylor University and earned a bachelor of arts in sociology from The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Ellen and her husband, Scott, have lived in Midland for over thirty years and have two children.

Todd Romero received his BA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his MA and PhD from Boston College. He is an associate professor of history at the University of Houston (UH), where he teaches classes on colonial, Native American, public, and U.S. history. Devoted to public education and educators, he served as the faculty director for five Humanities Texas summer teacher institutes at UH. For his work in the classroom, Romero won the 2012 UH Provost Core Teaching Excellence Award. In addition to a number of articles, Romero is the author of Making War and Minting Christians: Masculinity, Religion, and Colonialism in Early New England (University of Massachusetts Press, 2011). His research has been supported by fellowships or grants from the Newberry Library, the John Nicholas Brown Center for American Civilization at Brown University, the Huntington Library, the American Philosophical Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Reflecting his commitment to public history and budding interest in food studies, Romero co-directs the Gulf Coast Food Project at UH. He is the project director of a $100,000 three-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant—"The History of Food Production and Consumption in the U.S. Gulf Coast Region"—that will develop food studies curriculum, public programming, and scholarship at UH.

Susie Shields had the opportunity to teach in the Texas public school system for thirteen years at both the middle school and elementary school levels. A graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural economics, she came to teaching through a non-traditional route and spent her career in the classroom focusing on the subjects of mathematics and social studies. To her, education was not just a career choice; it was also a chance to be fully engaged in one of the most substantive issues of our day—the schooling of our children during their most formative years. As such, she amplified her experience in the classroom to the greater Austin and state communities by serving as a presenter at multiple local and statewide educational workshops and as member of several curriculum development and textbook selection committees. Although she now works with a wide variety of private and public sector clients to provide advocacy services before the Texas Legislature, her foundation as a teacher is the driving force behind her enthusiasm to champion Humanities Texas and its invaluable role in advancing our heritage and culture. She currently serves on the board of visitors for The University of Texas McDonald Observatory and Department of Astronomy and on the Visualize Graduation Society at University of Texas Elementary School in Austin. The daughter of a career Army officer, she spent her early childhood moving frequently from post to post before her family settled in Central Texas. She and her husband, Chris, call Austin home and are parents of four children and grandparents of one.

Chase Untermeyer has been an international business consultant since returning in 2007 from Qatar, where he served three years as United States ambassador on appointment of President George W. Bush. He has held both elected and appointed office at all four levels of government—local, state, national, and international—in addition to work in journalism, academia, and business. He is a graduate of Harvard College with honors in government and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. The many government posts he has held include Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs under President Reagan and director of Presidential Personnel under the first President Bush. He also served as director of Voice for America, the overseas broadcasting arm of the U.S. government, from 1991 to 1993. He has also served as director of public affairs for Compaq Computer Corporation and vice president for government affairs and professor of public policy at The University of Texas Health Science Center. He is chairman of the Texas Ethics Commission and a member of Council on Foreign Relations. In previous part-time public service, he has been member and chairman of the Board of Visitors of the US Naval Academy, a commissioner of the Port of Houston, president of the Houston READ Commission, a member of the board of National Public Radio, member of the Defense Health Board, chairman of the State Board of Education, and a founding member of the board of the Episcopal Health Foundation.