January is dedicated to honoring some of the hardest working members of Team AISD: our Board of Trustees. 

This month is School Board Recognition Month and Austin ISD invites its families, staff and community members to recognize the nine members of AISD’s school board who dedicate their time to serving the district’s 86,000 students. Learn about our Board of Trustees below. 

Vincent M. Torres, District 4, President
Vincent Torres has served on the Austin ISD Board of Trustees since May 2006, but his involvement  as a volunteer for the district extends many more years. Torres and his wife Suzanne, who have two children, have been active volunteers in their children’s schools and on district-wide committees. In 2005, Austin Partners in Education named him District Volunteer of the Year and in 2001 he was named Volunteer of the Year by Hill Elementary School.

Gina Hinojosa, At-Large Position 8, Vice President
Gina Hinojosa was elected to the Board in November 2012. Ms. Hinojosa, a 20-year resident of Austin, is a graduate of the University of Texas and earned a law degree from The George Washington University School of Law. She is a civil rights and employment attorney. Ms. Hinojosa, married to Austin attorney John Donisi, is the mother of two children, one a student at Pease Elementary School, and a 7-month old AISD student-to-be.

Jayme Mathias, District 2, Secretary
Dr. Mathias was elected to the board in November 2012 and has lived in Austin since 2000. He possesses two undergraduate degrees and four graduate degrees. He received a Ph. D. in Philosophy from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. Dr. Mathias serves as Senior Pastor of Holy Family American Catholic Church.

Cheryl Bradley, District 1 
Cheryl Bradley has served the district as a member of the AISD Board of Trustees since 2002. Before joining the Board of Trustees, Mrs. Bradley was active with the Pearce Middle School PTA and the 1996 Pearce Bond Task Force. She served as vice president of the Austin Council of PTAs and chaired PTA committees at Winn Elementary School, Pearce Middle School, Kealing Junior High School, and LBJ High School.

Ann Teich, District 3 
Ann Teich was elected to the board in November 2012. She is a 1970 graduate of Lanier High School and received her BA from Southwestern University and attended graduate school at the University of Texas-Austin. She was a language arts teacher in AISD for 27 years at Porter Middle School and served as a substitute in Austin middle and high schools for the past 7 years after retiring from full-time teacher. Ms. Teich and her husband Randy have two children who attended AISD schools.

Amber Elenz, District 5
Amber Elenz was elected to the board in November 2012. She graduated from the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in Plan II (Honors Liberal Arts) and from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University with a master’s in management. She was elected president of the Austin Council of PTAs in 2010 and served for two years while also sitting on the District Advisory Council. Ms. Elenz and her husband, Dr. Douglas Elenz, have two children who have attended AISD schools. 

Lori Moya, District 6
Ms. Moya has served on the AISD Board of Trustees since 2006 and she has been involved as a volunteer for the district in a variety of roles. A lifelong resident of Austin, she graduated from Travis High School and attended the University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Moya’s two children attended an graduated from AISD schools and her grandson attends public school in a neighboring district. She served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of School Boards for six years.

Robert Schneider, District 7
Rober Schneider has served on the AISD Board of Trustees since May, 2002, and has been active as a volunteer for AISD and other community groups. He is retired from fulltime work on massively parallel computer systems at The University of Texas at Austin after 30 years of research and departmental work. He was elected to represent the Austin School Board and the Austin ISD as a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of School Boards in October of 2013. Mr. Schneider and his wife Kathleen have four children who have attended AISD schools.

Tamala Barksdale, At-Large Position 9
Tamala Barksdale was elected to the Board in 2010 and, prior to that, served as a volunteer through the PTA and on various fundraising and activity committees at the campus level. Mrs. Barksdale and her husband, Avery, have one daughter, who is a graduate of Austin ISD schools. Mrs. Barksdale is the Director of Outside Engagement at EnviroMedia Social Marketing where she works every day with school districts and ECSs around the state to deliver public health and environmental programs.