September 2021 by Austin Woman Magazine

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• Roger Beasley is one of the largest Mazda dealers in the country. • We continue to have an incredible selection of new Mazdas to choose from. • We are able to offer the same great prices, just like we always have. • Trade-in values are at an all-time high. • It really is a great time to shop Mazda.

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FEATURE

ALWAYS MOVING FORWARD BY HANNAH J. PHILLIPS PHOTOS BY ANNIE RAY

FEATURE

DIRTY DANCING BY BRIANNA CALERI

ATXWOMAN.COM | 5

CONTENTS | SEPTEMBER

FROM THE DESK OF Spike Gillespie

PROFILE Vox Jo Hsu

STAFF PICKS What’s a milestone you’re celebrating in 2021?

COVER WOMAN CALLBACK Kathy Valentine

PROFILE Dolores Guerrero-Davis

COUNT US IN The Intersectionality of Women in the Workplace

SEE HER WORK Valérie Chaussonnet

WHERE TO WORK Are you hiring?

ON THE MONEY How to Invest in This Real-estate Trend

SIPS & TIPS Sommelier Rae Wilson

RECIPE REVEAL Melinda Reese

I AM AUSTIN WOMAN Pamela Benson Owens

ATX WOMEN TO WATCH

6 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

SARA MULDER

CANDICE CORBY

GLENDA MOLINA

DOROTHY LAWRENCE

MONICA BRIONES

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A PUBLICATION OF AW MEDIA INC.

VOLUME 20, ISSUE 10

ANNIE RAY DAWN WESTON

Photographer “Always Moving Forward,” page 38

Publisher

• She’s obsessed with Nut Pods Creamers. (“Soo good!”)

JAIME ALBERS

• She always has Dr. Phil on in the background

Art Director

when editing images. • Chuy’s is her happy place!

CY WHITE

“In 2021 my husband and I celebrate closing on

Managing Editor

a family home! We can’t wait to bring in the new year in our new home.”

DARBY KENDALL

Copy Editor PARKE BALLANTINE

Director of Events and Branding Strategy

BRIANNA CALERI ANNE COX

Writer “Dirty Dancing,” page 44

Production Coordinator

• She interviews three-plus Austinites per week. • She will visit the Swan Dive for any reason.

CONTRIBUTORS

• She regularly uses coasters.

Editorial: Brianna Caleri, Monica Godinez, Jenny Hoff, Allie Justis, Tori Klein, Claire Misfeldt, Pamela Benson Owens, Nicco Pelicano, Hannah J. Phillips

“When I started researching our April cover

Art: Hakeem Adewumi, Leon Alesi, Kevin Dick, Christopher Durst, Forklift Danceworks, Andy Garrison, TJ Hilton, Korey Howell, Jinni J, Manda Levy of A Fine Grain, Robert Matheu, Jonica Moore, Annie Ray, Riley Reed, Amitava Sarkar, Penny Snyder, Edwin Turk, Jessica Wetterer

Austin long enough that my stories have started

woman, Mela Sarajane Dailey, I recognized her from her work with the choral group Conspirare, which I covered in ATX Man. I’ve now been in to cross over into each other.”

HANNAH J. PHILLIPS

INTERNS

Monica Godinez, Tori Klein, Emily Manning, Erin McTaggert, Claire Misfeldt, Nicco Pelicano

Writer “Always Moving Forward,” page 38 • She is currently obsessed with crime fiction, everything from Agatha Christie to Ruth Ware. • She really tried to like matcha, “But I’m sorry, it’s terrible.”

AW MEDIA INC.

• Her dog, Lucy, also used to “write” for Austin

MELINDA GARVEY

KIP GARVEY

Co-founder/Co-owner

CEO/Co-owner

SAMANTHA STEVENS

Co-founder

ASHLEY GOOLSBY

CFO

Woman in her pet column, “Ask Lucy.” “This month marks exactly four years since my first cover story for Austin Woman, so I’m particularly honored to write for another anniversary issue. My interviews for this magazine

Austin Woman is a free monthly publication of AW Media Inc. and is available at locations throughout Austin and in Lakeway, Cedar Park, Round Rock and Pflugerville. All rights reserved. To offer feedback, email feedback@awmediainc.com. For submission information, visit atxwoman.com/jobs.

have brought me into close contact with local women who inspire me every day, and the subject of my first anniversary cover story, Monica Peraza, even became one of my mentors.” Photo by Taylor Prinsen

No part of the magazine may be reprinted or duplicated without permission. Visit us online at atxwoman.com. Email us at info@awmediainc.com. 512.328.2421 | 7401 West Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX 78739

ATXWOMAN.COM | 11

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hello, Austin Woman readers! I hope this issue finds you safe and well. I’ll start by saying we are heartbroken to have to postpone our 19th Anniversary event this month. Our concern for the health of our community has forced us to move our celebration to November. It was a really difficult decision for our entire team since our anniversary is the time of year when we get to celebrate with the AW community, cover women and all who support us. In the meantime, we’ve come up with fun ways to keep the party going all month long with awesome weekly giveaways, exclusive content and specials with local businesses. Be sure to follow Austin Woman on Instagram and/ or subscribe to our newsletters (you can find the link on atxwoman.com) to stay in the loop. This month we are so honored to have Muna Hussaini, ESG of Governance at Indeed, as our cover woman. She shares her story of hard work, perseverance and compassion. She even shares a few jokes with us. As a child of Muslim immigrants, she tries to navigate raising her children with the values and culture her parents carried with them to the U.S., along with just a few dollars in their pockets. Muna is a truly beautiful soul inside and out. Our second feature showcases Forklift Danceworks, whose mission is to connect and activate communities through dance. The dance company is most known for The Trash Project, which features workers from Austin Solid Waste Services. It’s an amazing display of how choreography breaks down barriers and creates balance in the workers’ lives. They celebrate their 20-year anniversary this October. Also, if you’ve not seen it, flip to page 52 to check out some of the companies that are hiring within our new monthly Where to Work section. If you’re a business with some available positions, you can get more information on how to post your openings too. I’m so inspired by the women who are gracing these pages. Let me tell, you they are all blowing up their industries, never settling or saying, “This is how it’s always been done.” They constantly find new ways to prosper despite the hurdles thrown their way. Cheers, friends!

DAWN WESTON PUBLISHER

Publication of Austin Woman would not be possible without the support of our monthly advertisers and sponsors, who believe in the impact we are making in the Austin community. The following businesses have stepped up their support of our efforts beyond traditional advertising and we are proud to recognize them as our partners. The team at Austin Woman is grateful for these businesses that have shown their commitment to the advancement of women in Austin and hopes you, as readers, recognize their efforts and support these businesses and all our regular advertisers.

12 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

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CONNECT WITH US

Can’t get enough of this issue? Check us out at atxwoman.com. Future Front Texas: Future Front Texas announced their rebranding on June 3. With a new image comes an enhanced mission to support underrepresented communities across Texas.

Noir Creators Space: Through Noir Creators Space, three entrepreneurs heeded the call of their community to aid other Black business owners gain visibility and access.

Jenn Hartmann Luck: Jenn Hartmann Luck has always been passionate about two things: performing arts and working with young people. With her album Raise Your Voices she combines both.

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WIN THIS! Bryan Anthonys’ Wild At Heart collection If you’re looking for meaningful jewelry for a loved one (or yourself), Bryan Anthonys is the place to look. Amber Glassman created the brand with the intention of putting words to complex emotions we all face and building a caring and supportive community through her messages. Part of Bryan Anthonys’ Wild At Heart collection, the “Depth” necklace empowers the wearer to embrace the unfamiliar and trust that she can overcome whatever obstacles come her way. “She is beautiful beyond the surface, made of infinite depths and endless facets…A reflection of endless beauty and strength, her greatest power will always come from within. From her ability to dive deep into her own depths. A constant reminder that just like the ocean, she is whole, capable and enough.” Enter for your chance to win by following us @austinwoman on IG. We’ll choose a winner at the end of the month.

14 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

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Photos courtesy of Future Front Texas, Noir Creators Space, Jenn Hartmann Luck.

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FROM THE DESK OF

STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF

Spike Gillespie holds true to all of her interests and passions. BY MONICA GODINEZ

PUT YOUR FEET DOWN. Years ago, I saved a child from drowning. I tell this story because at the time I couldn’t swim; however, I was able to save the child because we were in shallow water. If the child had stopped and just put their feet down, they would have realized that they were okay. Yet they let the panic take over and were unable to get their bearings. [Similarly] to other situations of panic, it is important to put your feet down (literally and metaphorically) and assess the situation. This is grounding in stressful moments.

ASK FOR HELP.

Spike Gillespie is a zealous woman, mother and entrepreneur. (In fact, she identifies as a “serial entrepreneur.”) For over a decade, Gillespie’s various interests have allowed her to become an author, journalist, blogger and wedding officiant. She is a woman “who takes no shit” from anyone and now fully understands the importance of being true to herself and her passions. Following her career as a writer in 2006, Gillespie embarked on a journey to become a wedding officiant. She wanted to bridge the gap for couples who were searching for officiants who performed nontraditional weddings. She discovered a newfound love for providing this service for couples who sought ceremonies that best aligned with their values. To date, she has performed over a thousand ceremonies, each one unique. After years of presiding over thousands of services—from massive weddings to “secret elopements”—Gillespie has decided to retire from her role as a wedding officiant. She made this decision as a result of the tumultuous year both she and her clients have undergone due to the ongoing pandemic. “I learned as I went, and what I learned is to find your confidence,” Gillespie says. “Be confident in your confidence. I tell women of all ages that they do not need to put up with anyone’s shit. There is so much conditioning, in every generation, and I feel like women spend so much time buying into the [idea] that they can’t do what they want for whatever reason.” During the first lockdown, Gillespie felt “forced to rest” in the best way possible. “If I could, I’d tell my 16-year-old self, ‘Here is this stuff I learned. If you could apply it, that would be great,’” Gillespie jokes.

Asking for help is one of the best practices a person can learn. I grew up very traumatized, after suffering abuse by my violent father and asking for help wasn’t an option. It was after decades of therapy that I learned that my [inability] to ask for help [stemmed] from this previous trauma. I [often] thought I had so much pride. I later realized it wasn’t pride, but fear. With the help of therapy, friends and myself I was able to learn that asking others for help was nothing to be afraid of. When I started asking for help, I saw just how willing others were to help me. Today, I ask others for help as much as I help others.

KNOW YOURSELF. This lesson may be a hard one for women. From a young age, we are trained to care and tend to everyone else first: our children, partners, parents, etc. We are taught that focusing/putting yourself first is selfish. It wasn’t until I was older and after my relationship with a narcissist abuser that I thought to myself, “I have to stop. What can I do to prevent myself from getting back into this situation?” So, I began reading articles on self-care. At first, I thought the idea of self-care was bullshit, but every single article recommended it, and I really wanted to heal. So, I slowly began incorporating small forms of self-care into my routine. I began eating healthier, doing yoga and I [really] started focusing on myself. I learned to have self-compassion and self-empathy. We are human, we make mistakes. We are constantly evolving.

DON’T LOOK AT OBSTACLES AS OBSTACLES; LOOK AT THEM AS INTERESTING CHALLENGES. For example, I was looking at properties out of state. The properties would be investment properties where I could provide people with affordable housing. I connected with the seller, and I explained my financial situation to her. Despite my untraditional financial [circumstances] she was still interested in working with me. I would have never thought she would still be interested in working with me, but I realized the significance of asking for help. It’s so important for you to ask and talk to those around you. You never know until you try. Remember, it starts with having that confidence in yourself.

I don’t mean this in an insensitive or cheesy manner. As someone who has PTSD, I have trained myself to literally look in front of myself. I put both feet on the floor and focus on the room instead of spiraling. Remembering that I am okay helps me understand that I will be okay in any situation and at any moment. Above all, Spike Gillespie wants everyone to remember, “There is so much out there to enjoy. Go out and do everything. Don’t let anything hold you back or get in the way of following what you want.”

16 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

Photo by Kevin Dick.

IT IS GOING TO BE OKAY BECAUSE IT IS ALREADY OKAY.

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WHO WOULD REMOVE MY WISDOM TEETH? While your family dentist may remove erupted or exposed wisdom teeth, many regular dentists do not. Furthermore, impacted wisdom teeth, more complex teeth or higher-risk teeth will likely result in referral to an oral surgeon. A visit with your dentist or a look at your X-ray would likely answer that question best. Most patients having multiple wisdom teeth removed at the same time will prefer sedation rather than being awake. Oral surgeons have extensive hospital-based training in anesthesia to make this procedure pleasant and astonishingly safe. The facility is almost as important as the surgeon, and board-certified oral surgery offices are inspected and certified for anesthesia safety by both the state of Texas and their surgery certifying board. Certification ensures that the monitoring and safety equipment mirrors that in the hospital environment.

AT WHAT AGE SHOULD WISDOM TEETH BE REMOVED? In general, younger patients are very low risk as the teeth are typically less difficult to remove. For this reason, the recovery is commonly smoother and faster. The best approach is to image and consult at a young age, typically teenage years, and make an assessment on whether the wisdom teeth will likely ever need to be removed. If removal is necessary, earlier surgery generally is easier and more predictable. This assessment might happen with your family dentist, orthodontist or directly with an oral surgeon.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS? Most insurance plans cover wisdom tooth removal. At consultation, each wisdom tooth will be evaluated and coded depending on how it is positioned within the mouth and whether it is exposed or impacted. Likewise, anesthesia choices are usually discussed and the level of sedation agreed upon. The costs will vary depending on these factors, and you can generally explore your insurance prior to the procedure. The best way to discover costs and insurance coverage, as well as discuss the procedure, is to set up a consultation visit with your provider.

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A LEGACY OF EXCEPTIONAL CARE

PROFILE

DEFYING EXPECTATIONS

As a nonbinary Taiwanese American professor and rhetorician, Vox Jo Hsu challenges stereotypes and questions social norms.

As an only child to Taiwanese immigrant parents, writer and assistant professor Vox Jo Hsu grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and majored in creative writing at Rice University. “When I applied to my MFA program,” Hsu says, “I was a queer, transgender, noncomforming, Taiwanese American child of immigrants, and I was writing stories about cisgender heterosexual white people because that’s what stories were about.” There is so much more power and influence in fiction than what people normally perceive. “We tell these stories that end up orienting us to certain goals, communities or certain visions of the world,” they say. “I think that as much as people tend to dismiss stories as fairy tales, they are very much how we come to shape our values and the communities we want to be in.” While they were studying for their MFA, Hsu was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for a nonfiction personal essay. The essay was based on their experiences during the seven-month gap between college and grad school while living with their partner in New York City. “We didn’t quite have the vocabulary to grapple with the histories that affected our relationship in that moment,” Hsu explains. “We were breaking from those expectations and being queer kids who wanted to be artists. So that was one of the first times that I was grappling with that in nonfiction form.” Hsu was determined not to get into research when they began their Ph.D. program in rhetoric but found that it interested them and also complemented their love of storytelling. “What I do as part of my job is sort of a marriage of those interests, in that I think critically about storytelling,” they reveal. “So how storytelling shapes the ways we interpret the world, the ways we encounter other people and how it can be used both in ways that are restrictive and ways that are liberating to push against our normative expectations of people or groups or nations. “When you grow up, you don’t spend a lot of time encountering stories about people like you,” Hsu explains. “Stories are social training in that way, and it’s not that certain things are inherently good or inherently bad. It’s that we have distributions of access to stories of the worlds we want to be in or the ways that we can be in the world.” Representation creates norms while simultaneously creating those who feel like outcasts, who are not given a platform to exist comfortably in society. “It’s not that norms are inherently bad,” they insist. “It’s that we should constantly be questioning them. ‘What are the exclusions of this; what are the limitations of this? How do we create more possibilities out of this; how do we always keep growing?’

18 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

“One of my big things in my research and my writing is exploring how our experiences are interrelated,” Hsu continues. “With the principle of intersectionality, if you begin there, if you begin with the experiences of Black, indegenious, trans people, you will necessarily create systems that can alleviate the struggling of a lot of other people along the way.” Although not visible to everyone, the normalized “structures of harm we’ve built” in society are felt by the people who reside in the “intersection of vulnerability and marginalisation,” Hsu says, elaborating on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s view of intersectionality. “For me, intersectionality is based in not only exploring the interrelations of race, sex, gender, ability, class and how those identities structure the ways that we interact with different people, but always trying to figure out who is most affected by these structures and how do we do right by them.” When reflecting on what they want to accomplish in their writing, Hsu responded, “How do I write in a way to mitigate harm or to address the harms that we’ve inherited? How do I write in a way that both takes responsibility for the worlds that I live in, benefit from and am complicit in, but also reveals to others how they are also linked up in this system?” As a nonbinary writer and assistant professor at UT, Hsu breaks social expecations that shape a more predjudiced way of thinking. “One of the challenges of being a structurally marginalized person is that you’re constantly running into these expectations that people have,” Hsu says. “There are challenges, but I know that I am incredibly fortunate to have this position.” Hsu’s unique journey and adoration of words has led them to successfully write a manuscript for a book they anticipate will be published fall 2022. “The project looks at how queer and trans Asian Americans use storytelling to create a sense of collective identity, and also to shift expectations about who belongs in the United States and how that belonging looks,” they explain. “At the center of that is a response to the model-minority myth about Asian Americans.” By defying social expectations in both their identity and writing, Hsu brings awareness to the power that storytelling has and illuminates that it can be used as a catalyst of change in a prejudiced society.

Photo by Riley Reed.

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STAFF PICKS

WHAT’S A MILESTONE YOU’RE CELEBRATING IN 2021?

The Austin Woman staff reflect on the craziness of 2021 and share moments of celebration in their lives.

DAWN WESTON PUBLISHER

I’m turning 40 later this year! I’d love to take a big vacay to celebrate, but I’m hesitant to make any travel plans. This picture is from a fantastic European vacation I took with my mom. It’s in a small pub in Debenham, with our family from across the pond. I was turning 29. It was one of those trips of a lifetime. What I do know is that no matter what the big 4-0 celebration looks like this year, I’m excited to step into a new decade with my amazing family, friends and co-workers by my side.

PARKE BALLANTINE Amidst the many changes and chaos of the past year, celebratory milestones seemed to get somewhat put aside, but one that stands out and deserves extra applause was the completion of my MBA in Innovative Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University. As a high school dropout, I never thought I would have a bachelor’s degree let alone a master’s degree from a top-tier school. My BA was in Ethnic Studies and Film. With a career in startups and nonprofits I wanted to understand the models, methodologies and resources behind entrepreneurship and business more thoroughly. I believe in the impact entrepreneurship has to create sustainable and meaningful economic power and exciting products, services and content for women, LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC communities not seen from the contemporary business landscape. In completing my MBA, I feel even more empowered to break the rules as I’ve come to know them. So, cheers to the tough days and late nights for the sake of innovation, passion and authentic embodiment through our work!

20 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

All photos courtesy of respective staff member.

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS AND BRANDING STRATEGY

CLAIRE MISFELDT EDITORIAL INTERN

I graduated college this past May! Probably the hardest part was trying to complete my degree during the pandemic. Most of my classes were remote, and some of my organizations had to completely restructure how we operated. I also endured the winter storm, lost a family member and had to complete my senior thesis. Despite all this, I felt very fortunate to have a strong support system during this time. My friends and family were there for me every step of the way. I’m still trying to navigate post-undergraduate life, but I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job. If my friends and family got me this far, I believe that energy can help me get even farther.

ANNE COX PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

My girlfriend and I moved in together just over a month ago! We’re one of those pandemic relationships, as we started dating right before lockdown toward the end of 2019. We’ve made it through quarantine, the freeze, both of us graduating, navigating new careers and plenty more obstacles. I’m super lucky to have her through it all, and she’s a fantastic coparent to my son—I mean cat, Tommy.

CY WHITE MANAGING EDITOR

One of the biggest milestones this year is my one-year anniversary at Austin Woman magazine. I know, I know. It’s the easy way out. But honestly, the experience was more than just the first year at a new job. I’m in a position I’ve never been in before: the head of the table. It’s the first year of being able to guide interns into a new phase of their writing careers. I’m celebrating being able to truly do what I’ve always set out to do (edit and be a part of telling amazing stories). Celebrating coming into my own as both a leader and an editor. Earlier on in my tenure, I had the honor to meet Queen Mother Dòwòti Désir Hounon Houna II Guely. She told me to keep in touch with her. When I message her, I can tell her that I’ve made it through my first year with this magazine and am truly beginning to realize and step into my greatness.

MONICA GODINEZ EDITORIAL AND MARKETING INTERN

To say this year was chaotic is an understatement. Having said that, every accomplishment this year, big or small, felt monumental. The biggest milestone I accomplished this year would have to be publishing my first ever article. Ever since I could remember I always hoped to one day be a published writer, and for it to finally occur was such an amazing ordeal. I will eternally be thankful for the opportunities I have had this year and am excited to see what comes next.

AUSTINWOMANMAGAZINE.COM | 21

COVER WOMAN CALLBACK

STILL FEELS LIKE FAMILY

The Go-Go’s bassist (and February 2009 cover woman) discusses family in all its forms. BY BRIANNA CALERI

Hall of Fame since 2006 when their debut album, Beauty and the Beat, turned 25. This October, after 15 years, some personnel changes in the organization’s nominating committee and a Go-Go’s documentary by director Allison Ellwood prodded the museum to finally recognize the iconic girl group in its 2021 class of inductees. The five Go-Go’s join the Hall of Fame’s inductee list alongside the iconic Tina Turner and Carole King, who are both included as duos with less famous ex-partners, Ike Turner and Gerry Goffin, respectively. A long-overdue win for women in rock. The Go-Go’s will hit the road this fall and celebrate with a twice-postponed tour. Despite having shrugged at the past 14 snubs, they’ve expressed effusive excitement at the induction. Last year, Go-Go’s bassist (and despite a significant 27-year stint in Los Angeles, born and returned Austinite) Kathy Valentine took her legacy into her own hands and released All I Ever Wanted, a fast-paced but thorough memoir with all the best and worst sides of sex, drugs and rock and roll. It’s sensational without sensationalizing. “A lot of women’s history and music is dismissed as not being relevant,” says Valentine, reflecting on the necessity of telling women’s stories. “Because of that dismissal, it kind of discourages future women. In the ’70s...I was 15 years old and learning to play guitar, thinking I was the only girl doing that besides Suzi Quatro in England. If all the other 15-year-olds had known that there were women starting bands, maybe...there would have been a lot more women in the music business.” At first, All I Ever Wanted is an unabashed genre book, more about the living spirit of genre and local scenes than, say, the specific origins of a punk/ new-wave girl group. Genre is a touchy subject for artists, a rigid expectation for trailblazers who feel pigeonholed by marketing that limits a more natural musical evolution. Valentine’s memoir proudly name checks blues staples, glam rockers (the lesser-known precursors to punk) and new-wave pioneers, tracing the social overlaps that come to define each movement. The origin portion of the memoir offers an Austin-centric study of music history, with lists of organizations and defining events anchoring each chapter in the world at large: the nightclub Raul’s, the birth of Saturday Night Live, plane crashes and murders. Personal notes saved over decades provide the content, and playlists the author compiled by year to jog her memory thrust her back into the feelings of listening to those songs when they were new. Valentine’s personal experience explains the logistics of becoming a punk musician and the frustration of being peddled as one in tabloids. Her reflective self-validation demystifies the oft-romanticized narratives in which musicians

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become famous simply because of charisma and talent. “I don’t even know when you’re in a scene, if you know you’re in a scene,” says Valentine, taking stock of experiences and trying in vain to compare them to emerging spheres now. “Bands go out and support each other—they’re all at each other’s gigs—and then the people that aren’t in bands like to be there because they want to see their favorite bands mingling. It just all comes together.” Always the planner, Valentine already has an arc for her writing career. She started with a memoir to position herself as a writer in a way she knew people would want to see. The rockstar story was a given. Her sobriety made her confident enough to try. Although she isn’t an avid social media user, she writes herself a sobriety birthday post every year that inspires a wave of warm responses and expressions of motivation.

Photos by Christopher Durst and Robert Matheu.

The Go-Go’s have been eligible to be canonized in Cleveland’s Rock & Roll

“” I had a pretty deep-set longing to feel like a part of a family, and I think being in a band satisfied that longing.

Spending most of its pages covering 20 years, the debut book leaves plenty of room for a second memoir, this time based on her life from her 30s to mid-60s. While she doesn’t know exactly what the next book will be about, Valentine possesses a refreshing neutrality about aging. In addition to having lived several lifetimes just in her first 30 or so years, she inherited an ambivalence for physical vanity from her mother that she thinks has made aging smoother. Before she writes the sequel, to prove memoirs aren’t her only forte, the newly published writer wants to try her hand at fiction. Two more books might seem daunting, but old habits die hard. Exactly as the teenage guitarist learned to play the bass four days before she joined the Go-Go’s, and the same way she got sober through daily routine, she learned how to write a book. “I knew that you had to just sit down and do the work,” says Valentine. “I think that’s true for any kind of endeavor; you have to figure out your process. It took me a while to get there, but I did.” Now Valentine is approaching a new stage of life; not as a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, but as an empty nester. She thought it would be like going back to life before her daughter, Audrey, until she realized motherhood changed her more than her lifestyle. With Audrey away at college this fall, it’s the perfect time for a reunion of a different kind. “I had a pretty deep-set longing to feel like a part of a family, and I think being in a band satisfied that longing,” says Valentine. “It hit me: friends. You’re going to make more room for friendships. Once somebody is in my little world, in my circle, I consider them family. Being in a band still feels like that to me.”

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PROFILE

CONTINUING THE LEGACY AND MAKING IT HER OWN

Dolores Guerrero-Davis speaks on her journey to owning and being the president of her family’s company. BY CLAIRE MISFELDT

CG&S has seen four iterations of leadership, but none quite like Dolores GuerreroDavis. The construction company’s name reflects the original structure of CG&S (Clarence Guerrero and Sons), which involved the founder and his sons doing the construction. Guerrero-Davis has kept the legacy of CG&S alive by continuing the work her parents did for the company. In 2018, she took over as president and owner after her brother stepped down. “I trust in that which is before us,” says Guerrero-Davis. “My focus was really on legacy. My parents started our company and they gave us an amazing foundation.”

Her parents, Clarence and Stella Guerrero, started CG&S in 1957. Clarence led the construction projects while Stella was in charge of managing the company. In the ’90s, their son Billy Guerrero bought the company and managed it until 2018. GuerreroDavis was the general manager while her brother ran the company, and in 1994 her husband joined the team. One of the most valuable aspects that Guerrero-Davis upholds is reliability. Many of CG&S’ projects are home renovations, so she wants to make sure the designs are both beautiful and high quality. “We have this opportunity to work with homeowners in their sacred space, which is their home,” she says. “I think of it as this gift to be able to go in and work with the homeowner.”

THE ROAD TO OWNER AND PRESIDENT

GOING FORWARD WITH THE PAST IN HER HEART

Guerrero-Davis prepared for her role as CG&S’ owner for almost 30 years by taking an active role in her industry. She spent a lot of time networking with other local businesses to be able to make connections in the Austin area. “I just felt like the most important thing I could do is be connected to our industry with other people that are doing the same kind of work that we’re doing,” Guerrero-Davis reveals. Part of her preparation to take over as owner of the family business included assuming many leadership positions. She was president of the local Austin National Associations of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) and sat on their board. She also currently works on the Workforce Development Foundation with Austin NARI. When Guerrero-Davis took over CG&S in 2018, she made changes in the company to adapt to Austin’s new emerging market. People started moving and buying homes in Austin after many companies moved their operations to Texas. “We really had to shift our business model to where we were still marketing and being a friend to the people who knew us,” Guerrero-Davis reveals. “At the same time [thinking], ‘How do we create new relationships? How do we attract some of the newer people?’” Guerrero-Davis anticipates making more changes in CG&S to evolve with Austin’s ever-growing housing market. For instance, she hopes to incorporate more environmental and ecologically friendly designs into future projects. She also plans to extend her outreach to the community and be able to help in more than just construction.

In all the time she’s spent at CG&S, Guerrero-Davis has always believed in the value of her work. Because her job requires her to help remodel and redesign someone’s home, she’s always felt like the family business is important to the community. “For us, and for me, it has to matter,” she insists. “What we do has to have a purpose. It has to be bigger than the bottom line.” With leadership and ownership changing so frequently in CG&S, Guerrero-Davis is proud to still have the company in the hands of her family. Not only has the family created a legacy of reliable services, but with her foresight GuerreroDavis herself has contributed to the continued growth of the company by tapping into that ever-changing market. The ability to keep the family business in the family is an amazing achievement, one that Guerrero-Davis knows her parents appreciate. “[They] were really good about taking care of people,” she says. “They were very, very good about staying humble and being a good steward of our industry. And I feel like I’ve embodied that and that’s who I’ve become. I think they would be happy for me.”

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Photo by Jinni J.

THE FAMILY BUSINESS AND THE SACRED SPACE

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COUNT US IN

THE INTERSECTIONALITY OF WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

TO MAKE FORWARD PROGRESS IN THE WORKPLACE (AND SOCIETY) WE MUST CONSIDER HOW EVERY IDENTITY INTERSECTS. BY MONICA GODINEZ ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESSICA WETTERER

6 in 10 A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2019 reported that 6 in 10 Americans believe the U.S. population’s racial and ethnic diversity has a positive impact on U.S. culture.

1989 Lawyer, civil rights advocate and full-time UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School professor Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in 1989 as a means of explaining the oppression African American women faced in society. Intersectionality refers to the framework for understanding the manner in which a person’s varying identities intersect and result in different outcomes for each person.

4500 The YWCA Greater Austin’s mission is to “eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families and strengthen communities.” The YWCA Greater Austin has annually served over 4500 women, girls and families.

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35% In McKinsey & Company’s latest find, Diversity Matters, they report that companies among the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity are 35% more likely to generate financial returns over the industry median.

60% A Catalyst report surveyed 1,569 professionals in corporate and noncorporate roles; the findings showed that 60% of people of color experienced the emotional tax while in the workplace. The emotional tax is defined as “the heightened experience of being treated differently from peers due to race/ethnicity or gender, triggering adverse effects on health and feelings of isolation and making it difficult to thrive at work.”

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SEE HER WORK

COMMUNITY, NOT COMPETITION

French-American artist Valérie Chaussonnet uses welding and painting to celebrate the spirit of sisterhood. BY CLAIRE MISFELDT

Take a stroll through Austin Community College’s Riverside campus and you may see a woman dumpster diving for pieces of discarded metal and steel. While some may find this strange, other students recognize her as the “Dumpster Queen.” As an art and welding student, Valérie Chaussonnet uses the discarded materials she digs up in her work. Chaussonnet is a professional artist with more than 30 years of experience and has been featured in over 45 group exhibitions since 2017. Her first solo exhibition was in 2020 with the Midland Arts Council. Her art is inspired by her work as a museum anthropologist, with a specialty in Siberian and American Arctic women’s art and shamanism. This process of transforming trash into art is part of how she approaches art in general, regardless of what medium she’s working with. “Art making is a spiritual practice where you practice not being attached to your preconceived notions,” says Chaussonnet.

THREE GUARDIAN SPIRIT SISTERS

Her Art History Chaussonnet’s art journey spans the globe, starting in Paris, France, where she was born. Her family fostered an appreciation for art in her from a young age. Yet she did not truly begin her career until after earning her doctorate. While working at the Smithsonian on her Crossroads exhibition, Chaussonnet also took night classes at the Corcoran Art School. Her earliest pieces were masks based on her experience with Inuit artists she met while completing her doctorate. In 1997, Chaussonnet moved to Austin with her first son and gave birth to her second the following year. She took a short break from art during her first few years as a mother but picked painting back up in 2002. With the desire to learn more technical and welding skills, she enrolled at Austin Community College (ACC) soon after. “There are excellent art classes that can be taken at the community college,” Chaussonnet beams. “[ACC] is affordable and fabulous all around.” Continuing in the spirit of education, since 2013, Chaussonnet has been teaching French and art through her school La Petite Provence Austin while working as a professional artist. In that span of time, her works have been featured in exhibitions all across Texas. For example, she is currently featured in the State of Sculptor exhibit in San Angelo. Photos by TJ Hilton.

The Spirit of Sisterhood A common theme throughout Chaussonnet’s work is the idea of the “ancestral goddess” and the bond between women. Even during her time working at the Smithsonian, she focused her research on art from Inuit women and showcased work from indigenous contemporary artists in the exhibition. “I consider myself a feminist and the spirit of sisterhood is central to me,” says Chaussonnet. “I feel a lot of [the] community of art [is] made by women.” CLASS NOTES

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“” Art making is a spiritual practice where you practice not being attached to your preconceived notions. JOYOUS PAINTING FOR MARC CHAGALL

OH MON CHOU

SECRET RENDEZ-VOUS

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Different aspects of womanhood are incorporated into much of Chaussonnet’s work, like in her steel sculptures Three Guardian Spirit Sisters and Goddess of Girlhood to Womanhood. The continued use of discarded and recycled material embodies the idea of women creating something new from found items. “We’re given some tools, we’re taking the tools if they’re not given willingly [and] we also have the flexibility in creating something different,” says Chaussonnet. First Masks Chaussonnet’s work in steel has remained relatively consistent with her use of discarded and recycled material. She constructed her first welded piece, First Masks, at the Corcoran Art School in D.C. nearly 30 years ago. She took inspiration from African, Northwest Coast Indian and Italian Renaissance art to construct this piece. Like her work as the Dumpster Queen of ACC, Chaussonnet keeps her tradition of welding recycled material while also experimenting with her medium. “Those pieces have embodied things that have been constant in the past 30 years of me making art,” adds Chaussonnet. “Some people come to my house and they say, ‘It’s amazing how consistent your work has been even though it looks different.’”

Continuing to Celebrate Art for Chaussonnet is a celebration in the purest form. Not only does she view her own art as a celebration of herself and the histories that inspire it, but she also holds this view for her friends’ art. In her own private collection, Chaussonnet collects art from people she knows as a symbol of their friendship. “Every piece is a celebration,” she says. “Every piece is a way of working through and of cherishing a moment that happened and it gets embodied in the piece.” Valérie Chaussonnet reveres the beauty that comes out of trying something new in her art. Her advice for anyone who desires to become an artist is to not be afraid or think you can’t create something beautiful. “Art making is a dance with the medium,” she says. “So there are limitations, but limitations are not necessarily bad. Limitations are just an opportunity to try something in a different way.”

MEETING THE TRIBE

WHITE BUFFALO

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WOMAN to WATCH

SARA MULDER

ara Mulder, founder and creative director of Bella by Sara, is one of Austin’s premiere awardwinning floral designers. She is a certified floral and event designer with over 15 years of event planning and design experience in the wedding industry. Through all this experience, Mulder found that her absolute favorite aspect of event production is floral design. She has an artistic eye that enables her to create elegant, extraordinary designs. The artists at Bella by Sara proudly create masterful floral pieces for weddings, corporate functions and social events. They are known for producing statement pieces and designing ornate installations. Their passion for floral design is infused into every event they participate in. bellabysara.com

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Photo by Taylor Prinsen Photography.

BELL A BY SARA, OWNER

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WOMAN to WATCH

CANDICE CORBY

COBRA LEGAL SOLUTIONS, CEO

andice Corby is the CEO of Cobra Legal Solutions and president of the Eastern USA – India Business Council of the Women’s India Chamber of Commerce and Industry. At age 26, Corby was the youngest ever CFO of a Scripps Howard newspaper. She has over 20 years of C-suite experience and in 2019 several international organizations recognized her for her outstanding leadership (finalist: Austin Business Journal’s Top CEO; winner: Women’s Economic Forum Woman of the Decade in Law and Leadership). In 2017 she was named a distinguished alumnus at the University of Arkansas – Little Rock, and acted as a contributor/ panelist for Championing Women in the Workforce at McCombs Executive MBA program at UT. Corby runs marathons with Team Livestrong, provides bottled water to the homeless with the I Am Waters Foundation and supports Rising Star Outreach in India. She actively promotes and supports women being strong leaders in the workforce. Corby resides in Austin with her husband, Ken Corby. cobralegalsolutions.com

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WOMAN to WATCH

GLENDA MOLINA

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WOMAN to WATCH

DOROTHY L AWREN CE P R I N C I PA L AT T O R N E Y DOROTHY BUTLER L AW FIRM

orothy Lawrence is the owner/founder of Dorothy Butler Law Firm, a boutique all-woman law firm in Dripping Springs, Texas. Born and raised in Louisiana, Lawrence practices across state lines but has made a name for herself in Texas. With both a Juris Doctorate and master’s degree in tax law, she focuses on all legal and fiscal aspects: bankruptcy, debtor defense and tax law. Since 2016, the Super Lawyers Association has honored Lawrence as a Rising Star—an honor bestowed upon fewer than 2.5% of lawyers. In the span of over a decade, a firm she started on her dining room table has grown into a multi-office cross-discipline force. The firm has four other attorneys who focus on most other areas of law including family law, business transactions, real estate and personal injury. When not lawyering, she is a professional musician who performs with Broadway Across America and legends like Bernadette Peters. dorothybutlerlawfirm.com

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WOMAN to WATCH

MONICA BRIONES

S P R O U T R E A L T Y, R E A L T O R A N D P U B L I C R E L A T I O N S E X E C U T I V E

onica Briones, public relations executive and Realtor at Sprout Realty, transitioned to Austin in 2021 after living in NYC for over 15 years. She spent the bulk of her career in fashion and marketing for companies such as Vera Wang and NBC Universal. As a Realtor, she has kickstarted a thriving business despite a very competitive market. She attributes her success to learning from Cody Cooper, Sprout Realty’s owner and broker. “I never thought in a million years I’d be a Realtor, let alone one who would close over $5 million worth of transactions in five months.” Briones is also part of community organizations such as Girls Who Code whose mission is to close the gender gap in technology. “Working at Facebook allowed me to learn and grow within tech. Now as a Realtor, I’m able to flex my digital skills for my clients and community, which is a win-win” sprouthomes.com

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ALWAYS

MOVING FORWARD

Hate crimes, cancer and conflict haven’t quenched Muna Hussaini’s hope. BY HANNAH J. PHILLIPS, PHOTOS BY ANNIE RAY

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Even over the phone, a first impression of Muna

“” The sun rises every day, and we have to keep going. We can’t wait for someone else to build the world we want to see. We have to be doing that work now.

Hussaini renders an aura of calm. There’s a steadiness in her speech and a confidence in her voice. Her spirit is curious, and her response to the occasional interruption of her children oozes compassion. “No, the cat’s not in here, boo boo,” she says. “Mommy’s on a call. Can I finish my call please?” The cat in question is a COVID cat, Hussaini explains, adopted during the pandemic for her 13-year-old daughter and her son. “My 5-year-old monster,” she laughs. The moniker, along with her affectionate tone, speaks even louder than her words on the importance of her family, which she weaves throughout the conversation as a central theme in her life. Outlining her career, she traces her path from a child of immigrants to senior roles at global tech companies like IBM, Paypal and now, Indeed. Currently serving as the head of ESG Governance at Indeed, Hussaini pinches herself every day that she gets to “change the way the world hires, for good.” The path was not mapped out for her, and as a Muslim woman working in the tech industry since 2001, Hussaini has faced more than her share of obstacles—physically, spiritually and in her career. None of those hurdles have held her back; none have extinguished the steady flame of hope she holds out to the world with open arms. “The sun rises every day, and we have to keep going,” she says. “We can’t wait for someone else to build the world we want to see. We have to be doing that work now.” As Hussaini shares the pivotal moments of her life thus far, she charts how each one defined her, refining her identity and strengthening her resolve to make the world a better place. Her story begins in Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh in southern India, which her father left in 1973 to pursue his master’s in petroleum engineering at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, had passed just six years before. Fueled by the Civil Rights Movement, the bill forever changed the course of immigration demographics in the U.S. by opening entry to immigrants other than those of Northern European descent. “My parents are the American dream,” says Hussaini. “They literally came with dollars in their pockets.” Hussaini knows it was hard for her parents to leave their lives in India behind. They arrived in the States before Google, before email and Zoom. She recalls the echo on the line during the occasional long-distance phone call to family members back home. “They left everything behind,” she says. “I think when you’re trying to retain your language, culture and food, it’s not as easy when you’re sort of swimming against the currents. We’re also Muslim, so I think my parents tried to integrate, not assimilate. They took what they thought was beautiful in American culture and adopted it without losing their own values and tradition.”

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Another way Hussaini fosters healthy workplace communication is through humor. “If people don’t know you, they can’t like you; if they don’t like you, they can’t trust you.” During the pandemic, she introduced dad jokes on her org-wide calls to help her team stay connected virtually. Below are two of her favorites: What kind of tree fits in your hand? A palm tree. What kind of joke did the paper make? A tearable one.

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Growing up, Hussaini remembers how faithfully her parents not only taught her their language, how to read and write, but how to make their food and follow their customs. “I didn’t wear shorts, I didn’t date, I didn’t watch 90210,” she laughs. “I’d mope around about it, but my parents would just say, ‘Suck it up; you’re different.’ I think that taught me not to care what anyone else thinks. I love that Brené Brown quote where she says, ‘The comments from the cheap seats don’t bother me at all.’ Those knocks you take when you’re younger helped me be strong in who I am and what I think.” Hussaini also traces that independence to moving a lot as a kid. Her father’s job as a petroleum engineer took the family all over the world. Born in Pittsburgh, she spent parts of her childhood in Saudi Arabia, Texas and Qatar before finishing high school in Sugarland, Texas. “I used to be confused by the question of who is your role model, because I didn’t have access to a lot of people,” she says. “I always knew I wanted to have a career, but I couldn’t identify with anyone that I wanted to be like. I feel grateful now because I see who my daughter can look up to, but I always got lost since I grew up in such different places.” As a child of immigrants, the female role models Hussaini did have were most often homemakers, teachers and doctors. Most of the men were engineers like her father. Studying at the University of Texas at Austin, Hussaini remembers attending a large university hiring event with about a hundred other students. She ended up landing a job with IBM in project management, her first job out of college. Looking back, she marvels at how that one group interview set the course for her career. “I like group work, but I didn’t go into that interview knowing it could be a job,” she says. “If someone had put me in a different pool, my career would look very different. Somebody made a decision for me right there, and it impacted the rest of my life.”

“”

In early autumn of the same year she graduated, another event would have a lasting effect on her life: Hussaini moved to Boulder to start her job with IBM just two weeks before Sept. 11, 2001. “Everybody in my generation can draw a line and see a [world] before and after 9/11,” she says. “For me, as a visible Muslim woman, it was a huge line.” With no friends and no family in her new home city, Hussaini vividly remembers the immediate isolation and otherness she felt from that day forward. She recalls everyone in her office watching the news on TV, then turning around to look at her. Within those first few weeks, she became the victim of several hate crimes—at work, at restaurants, even in her car. She was threatened by a colleague and driven off the highway by a stranger. “I was attacked in public, in broad daylight, in a group of people,” she shares. “Suddenly, all conventional wisdom you follow as a human being to stay safe no longer applies. I don’t know what a typical profile of an attacker is, but these incidents were from an old man on a plane, or a mom and her baby filling up their soda in a Taco Bell.” Through these experiences, Hussaini drew comfort and strength from the very things that made her stand out in the first place. She attributes her resilience in the face of these traumas to the strong sense of identity her parents instilled in her from an early age. “I can’t hide who I am,” says Hussaini. “Even if I dress differently, I’m not a white person. My parents gave me such a strong core, and I see that theme of standing up whole and complete in my life. The fear and vulnerability stay with me, but I manage it. It’s part of who I am, but it doesn’t define me.” On the contrary, she harnesses these painful experiences to be a light to others. Hussaini describes her vulnerability less like baggage to drag through life and more like a bird sitting on her shoulder—always there, but not weighing her down. If anything, her

I feel grateful now because I see who my daughter can look up to, but I always got lost since I grew up in such different places.

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showers and more. The spacious rooms allow for a variety of travelers, including families with small children and pets, groups of friends or visitors on business. Property amenities include Simona’s Coffee and Cocktails, an elegant space curated to bring guests and locals a variety of luxury coffee, teas, wine and other spirits by Austin’s finest distributors; an outdoor heated pool; and rooftop deck for private events. 2510 South Congress Ave. coltonhousehotel.com

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Wholehearted Living

Hussaini believes in the importance of living out your values beyond the workplace. Here are just a few examples of her commitment to community engagement, motherhood and inclusion. Interfaith Action of Central Texas: Board Member “Part of building inclusion is using my faith as a force for good, so being part of iACT has been an amazing experience bringing different faith groups together to do housing projects. From painting homes to cleaning up yards, we work on rebuilding our community for people who need it. That’s the kind of community I want to build.” City of Austin/Travis County Hate Crimes Taskforce: Member “When I moved to Austin in 2012, they wanted to talk to people who had been victims of crimes. This is how I became an accidental community activist, because as I started sharing more about my experiences and going to churches, people would say, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize Muslims had a sense of humor,’ or they would be surprised that my biggest nemesis was laundry too. I think they would realize that I am not that different, and it was amazing to be part of building a new definition of tolerance that’s not centered around putting up with people, but about helping people see each other and support each other with love.” Three Righteous Mamas: Podcast co-host Like many, Hussaini felt a new call to civic engagement after the 2016 election. Her political activism brought her in close contact with the two friends she later launched a podcast with, Martha Pincoffs and Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. As Muslim, gay and Latina co-hosts, their podcast Three Righteous Mamas highlights people making their community a better place. Guests have included Liz Lambert, Wendy Davis and Beto O’Rourke. “Before then, there were Latino issues and gay issues, and there were segments, and then a lot of those segments collapsed,” she says. “After that election, there was no way for me as a victim of previous hate crimes to sit down and move on with my life.” Recode the Quo: Co-founder Launched in January 2019, Recode the Quo is a pilot program on a mission to help the Austin-based startup community be more equitable, inclusive and diverse. “Most people are thinking a lot about diversity and inclusion now, but smaller companies may not have the ability to build that into their system yet. We’ve created a program to help founders bake those values into their mission from the get-go so it’s not something run off the side of their desk or through HR.” So far, eight companies have completed the program, with another 10-15 on deck. Hussaini hopes the program will have a global impact, creating a ripple effect not only in the Austin community but in all the international communities connected to the tech industry here.

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“” My Muslimness is what makes me beautiful at home, in my community and at work. Being a mom makes me a better employee. That theme of coming into your own is a gift in every single one of your spaces.

fears from past traumas give her an extra heart for people who experience marginalization of any kind. “I think my vulnerability makes me wiser,” she says. “It helps me see things I wouldn’t otherwise see. I have zero appetite for watching anyone else get disrespected. As a Muslim, a lot of people criticise me for supporting the LGBTQ+ community, but I’m not going to fight for my own rights and then allow for discrimination against someone else.” Still, it hasn’t been an easy path to healing. In the aftermath of 9/11, Hussaini was grateful to be working at IBM, which has a strong history of diversity and inclusivity. Her boss at the time encouraged her to take time off to see a therapist. Being forced to focus on mental health was another pivotal moment for Hussaini, setting the tone for the rest of her career. “When I came back to work, I was able to be much more intentional,” she recalls. “As someone who has been attacked, I don’t think that fear ever leaves you, but you choose to show up anyway. It’s a choice to step into public spaces, but I think the confidence my parents gave me and the clarity I gained from therapy helped me get through.” Choosing to show up, and doing so wholeheartedly, is as integral to Hussaini’s story as her familial identity. For her, the two themes are interwoven, especially as she now raises children of her own. “For a long time, we felt like you have to hang up who you are when you go to work, but we have to live our values all of the time,” she says. “My Muslimness is what makes me beautiful at home, in my community and at work. Being a mom makes me a better employee. That theme of coming into your own is a gift in every single one of your spaces.” Hussaini took a career break after the birth of her first child, time she will always cherish because it laid the foundation for many of the initiatives that led to where she is today. But beyond career touchstones, she is grateful for that time because slowing down to recuperate is how she discovered her thyroid cancer. During a routine checkup just three or four months after giving birth, her doctor discovered a nodule in her throat. Because they caught it early and because she was still nursing, she didn’t undergo radiation. “I am really lucky I didn’t have to do chemo,” says Hussaini. “My scar is a badge of honor. It’s easy to armor up, but I had to go through these experiences to figure out how strong I could be.” She doesn’t take credit for surviving that difficult season alone, though. Hussaini attributes much of the success of her career to having “such a badass husband.” When Hussaini returned to full-time work and didn’t want to start

pumping, her husband traveled with her so she could keep nursing. “Most husbands are not that supportive,” she laughs. “We don’t divide things up at home based on gender, but based on who can do it. We share the laundry, cooking and everything together.” Nonetheless, returning to work was difficult as a new mother, but the experience set the foundation for much of her later work. When she eventually moved into a diversity and inclusion role at Paypal, she built a hiring program targeted at women returning to work after taking a career break. Conducting surveys and comparing participant’s stories with her own experience led to an epiphany. “I realized that if we get to make the rules for this program and these rules aren’t working for this particular group, why don’t we change them? Why am I in this role if I don’t get to change the rules?” And that is exactly what she did. The pioneering program restructured how tech companies recruit and hire women returning to work. As the first successful program of its kind for a large corporation, Hussaini’s engagement became the impetus for launching Path Forward, a nonprofit organization helping other companies launch and expand similar programs. Hussaini still serves on the advisory board of Path Forward today. “It’s probably what I’m most proud of in my career,” she says. “It was just an affirmation that sometimes the systems have to change, but you have to be in a position of power to change them. How do you make all of the systems align to drive change?” One of the biggest ways to drive change is to create systems of healthy communication and conflict management. Learning to deal with conflict is often particularly difficult for women, she argues, because of certain gender expectations.

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“There’s a double bind for women,” she says. “If you’re too strong, you’re aggressive, and if you’re not strong enough, you’re not a leader. I had to learn how to deal with and how to manage expectations in the workplace.” The key is to develop good communication between bosses and employees. Slipping Brené Brown quotes into the conversation at regular intervals, Hussaini highlights the impact of both negative and positive leadership models on the trajectory of her career. “It’s important to have a good boss that communicates expectations, or you won’t have a clear picture of what’s going on,” says Hussaini. “But when you give people context, they are empowered to have agency and make their own choices. It’s about putting people in a position to do their best work.” Mapping the milestones of her 20-year career, she can still see the impact of good leadership in the choices she made along the way. She attributes her diversity and inclusion role at Paypal to a good boss on her software development team; he not only painted a clear picture, but discovered elements of Hussaini’s potential she hadn’t even noticed in herself. Seeing a new position on the diversity and inclusion team, he tapped Hussaini for the role. “I had read the job description and wasn’t sure I should apply,” she recalls, “but he kind of proverbially smacked me across the head because I lived it every day. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how much he invested in my career: You can’t just have support, you have to have a sponsor. I wouldn’t have gone looking for that role, so that was a powerful lesson for what you can do for others once you step into a position of power.” The role marked another major career turn for Hussaini, combining her background in tech with her mission to make the world more inclusive. That blend of experience and passion is also what led to her current position at Indeed. As head of ESG Governance, she is tasked with ensuring that the company delivers on its key environmental, social and corporate governance commitments. Our mission at Indeed is to help all people get jobs. “Within that, we also have to ask what role our company plays in changing how the world works. My role is helping deliver on the commitments we have made as a company,

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we hope to achieve net zero in greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 where have the most impact ie business travel and how our employees get to work, and scaling how we deliver on those goals consistently.” For Hussaini, the job brings her story full circle back to her father’s first job in the States. Despite being one of the top students in his petroleum engineering master’s program, he struggled to find a job until a professor referred him to a visiting friend from Gulf Oil. Landing the job not only impacted her father’s life, but lifted their family out of poverty and gave Hussaini many of the opportunities she has today. “You don’t just change that one person,” she says. “You change their family and their community. I get to go to work every day and help the whole world.” Creating those opportunities remains top of mind for Hussaini, especially as world news continues to look, on the whole, rather bleak. In the time between this story’s initial interview and final draft, U.S. troops left Afghanistan. Shocking images of Afghan citizens attempting to flee the country drew parallels to 9/11, which took place 20 years ago this month. While the media rightly reports on the drastic setback this could be for women in the country, Hussaini shares the reminder that it will have an enormous effect on Afghan citizens as a whole. “The whole society is impacted,” she says, thinking of the lack of opportunities it could create for families. “I want to live in a world where it doesn’t matter what you believe or where you were born, you have the same opportunities to raise your kids and send them to school and build yourself a life.” Hussaini holds a steady hope that this kind of world is possible, clinging to her faith and taking time to care for herself in the midst of what often feels like global chaos. Quoting Audre Lorde, she uses the phrase “self-preservation” rather than self-care, which Lorde calls an act of political warfare. “Taking care of yourself is radical,” says Hussaini, making the quote her own. “Preserving yourself in a system that wants you to drain yourself is a way to push back. I want people around me to find joy. Part of resistance is being joyful.”

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DIRTY DANCING

Forklift Danceworks puts blue-collar workers in the spotlight. BY BRIANNA CALERI

In graduate school, Allison Orr watched a man clean some windows. The former social worker was studying choreography at the time and had spent the whole day in the studio. The campus foreman, Manuel Godinez, faced her from outside and swept his tools across the window with ease and forethought. It was 1998, so there were no “satisfying” viral videos of perfect window cleanings yet. There were no TikTok dance challenges to interpret real life into something consumable in seconds. But pattern recognition is universal. “I watched him and thought, ‘Well, that’s the most interesting choreography I’ve seen in a long time,’” Orr recalls. “There’s a very specific pattern to his window washing. It was very clear and precise. It was absolutely rehearsed. And it was very determined in terms of timing. It was all that you want a dance to be.” She approached Godinez to introduce herself and explain a performance series she’d been working on. Collaborating with campus employees, she choreographed routines to mimic their everyday activities. The foreman agreed to perform his solo. To this day, Orr remembers his dance and “generosity” as emblematic of her goals as a choreographer. “The gorgeousness of the movement, the perfection of that dance....It’s still what I’m doing,” says Orr.

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The choreographer built a career on curating this type of movement and encouraging manual workers to perform it, not for utility, but for beauty. Most of her choreography is dominated by self-presumed non-dancers. Her company that runs on the contributions of these community members, Forklift Danceworks, celebrates its 20th anniversary this October. When Forklift approaches new performers, its first task is to start chipping away at doubt. “My favorite group to pitch to are highly skeptical men,” Orr says with a laugh. “They’re so fun, and they’re so easy to shock.” It must have been surprising for Godinez to hear someone was enjoying his menial task. Thankfully, if he felt any selfconsciousness, he transcended it. The transition from worker to dancer, in these cases, is entirely mental. There are no complicated moves to learn, no strenuous flexibility to attain. The turning point for many participants comes when Orr explains to them that they are simply doing their jobs to music. The pride of getting a job done with no fuss stops being an obstacle, and pride for what is often a lifelong career takes over. “Once they see that we’re really operating in their own vocabulary, they then want to raise the bar and make it great,” says Orr.

“” Krissie Marty, Forklift’s associate artistic director and community collaborations director, didn’t need any convincing on Orr’s vision. She and Orr worked—though not at the same time—for the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (now simply Dance Exchange) in Maryland, which emphasizes community participation and has worked with entities including NASA, Facing Race and the National Park Service. Marty heard from others at the company that a woman from Texas had just left but didn’t recognize Orr’s name. When Marty returned to Austin, she reached out to the woman she’d heard of to make a connection in the local dance scene. She accepted an invitation to a rehearsal Orr was running for the Forklift project 200 Two-Steppers on the Steps of the Texas Capitol. The largescale dance, featuring over 300 participants, was sourced straight out of honky-tonks Orr visited. She spent four months convincing hobby dancers to sign on for a performance during arts nonprofit Fusebox’s “T is for…” event, kicking off the 2010 iteration of their annual festival. “I think I just leaned over and said something to her about rehearsal...and probably gave her some unsolicited advice,” says Marty. “And Allison was like, ‘Oh my God, Krissie, you get it!’” What Marty “got” is central to Forklift’s mission statement: “All people are inherently creative.” The dances expose overlooked workers to the communities they serve, but they also uncover an inner creative life that many people never connected with. The collaboration is the core art; the performance is simply the finishing touch. Forklift’s best known project, The Trash Project, engaged workers from Austin Solid Waste Services in a company-defining performance attended by thousands. The partnering documentary, Trash Dance (2012), invites viewers behind the scenes, revealing the extent

The gorgeousness of the movement, the perfection of that dance....It’s still what I’m doing. to which Forklift immerses itself in a community while choreographing. Orr spent twelve months coercing the workers to see themselves as worth watching. In the film, Orr appears benevolently unshakeable in her desire to simply be present, while beginning to challenge the status quo. The workers appease her but are slow to adopt her enthusiasm for the idea. As Orr shadows sanitation workers, she balances a willingness to try each job with a girlishness that, to viewers who have been in a similar place, might seem carefully curated. There is enough toughness in the job to go around; it’s the choreographer’s job to inject some vulnerability. Every few scenes a curtain seems to lift as she becomes firmer, not unlike a popular grade-school teacher sneaking some actual curriculum into a reluctant but emotionally devoted class. The workers’ attitudes start to evolve in parallel. “This is just a sly way to get out of work,” says crew leader Lee Houston. After allowing himself the vulnerability to rehearse using classic slacker logic, he starts to consider the impact the show could have on his daughter. He decides to commit more fully as a way to teach her about giving back to her community. Attitudes start to shift, and the workers start getting excited, even pitching their own ideas. They start to see past the project, to the art inherent in their work. “Now that I think about it...I’m pretty sure we could go out there and do a job and you could put music to that,” says supervisor Chris Guerrero.

Sarah Hinze

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The final production is performed in a gentle mist on a rainy night, with slick asphalt melting into the dark sky and heightening the drama. Without an idea what the dance will look like, it’s easy to predict a neat neighborhood event that someone could, theoretically, see art in. But it is art. No imagination necessary. Sixteen large sanitation vehicles parade around to music by composer Graham Reynolds. Tony Dudley, then dead animal collector, gives a monologue about his work, Ivory Jackson, Jr. raps and Orange Jefferson plays a soulful harmonica solo. Anthony Phillips, who earlier introduced himself as a jam skater, performed his own choreographed breakdancing. When Don Anderson, the charismatic de facto main character from Solid Waste Services, performs his crane solo, Orr becomes visibly emotional. Anderson’s face is overcome with blissful concentration as he guides the machine through sweeping turns, its metallic clanging seeming to lead the live band. It is Orr’s closeness to the project bringing tears to her eyes, but there’s something else that carries the emotion through to the audience. The show is about the people, whether or not you know them apart from the vehicles. They are inseparable. One of the last shots of the film shows supervisor Virginia Alexander waving to a child from her truck. She’s out of the limelight, back to work and basking in

Brigette Oakes

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the purest form of appreciation most workers receive outside suddenly becoming dancers. Never having been a proficient enough dancer to make a career of it, Orr explains, “I always felt like whatever I was making, both my grandfather and my 5-year-old next door neighbor needed to feel like it was relevant to them. I didn’t know there would be a place in dance for me.” Once she found it, she had to share it. Now a bigger company with five full-time and eight part-time staff, Forklift is managing multiple long-term projects. The research doesn’t slow down just because they’re busy. Ideally, each project includes a year of shadowing to learn which actions are integral to the work, who is best at each specific job and what people don’t normally see. Then interviews are conducted to learn more about the cultural context of the work and use in clips during the show.

Photos by Andy Garrison, Penny Snyder and Amitava Sarkar.

Allison Orr

“We take a lot of time to learn that and to build relationships, to then have people perform. They have to trust us too,” says Marty. Forklift’s 20th-anniversary project gathers more of these interviews to fully explore the jobs it has represented. The retrospective portrait series On the Job engages 20 former Forklift performers to catch up and give deeper background, from an Elvis impersonator talking about his aunt dating Buddy Holly, to a Venetian gondolier discussing his position as the last in a line of three generations with the job. “A lot of people say that truck drivers, dock workers…that they’re the nobodies. They see us as the nobodies. We were able to see ourselves like movie stars, like rock stars,” says Liliana D’Osio of Goodwill Central Texas, crediting the Forklift project RE Source in her interview. “I see people that matter. I see essential workers. I see them, my little family, as bigger.” Recently, Forklift wrapped up a baseball project at Downs Field, handing the community-led advisory committee to Huston-Tillotson University and Six Square for continued development and community engagement. It’s also looking forward to a performance at Connecticut’s Wesleyan University in October, featuring workers from physical plant (which handles facility maintenance) and custodial services. The rest is planning. Orr will publish a book next year with Wesleyan University Press, the company is starting a residency with Austin FC and there’s a party to throw. The 20th-anniversary gala, held October 28 at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden, is essentially an in-person iteration of the portrait project. It will invite community members and leaders to come together and engage with seven of Forklift’s past projects: The Trash Project; Take Me Out to Downs Field; The Gondola Project; My Park, My Pool, My City; In Case of Fire, PowerUp (featuring Austin Energy) and The Trees of Govalle (featuring Austin’s Urban Forestry Division). Five projects will be represented at the event via booths serving themed food, drink and experiences. Current plans for the baseball booth include American food, whiskey and an athletic challenge. Some alumni from each project will work the booths, while previous performers from the remaining two projects will give short performances. Don Anderson, who joined Forklift as its community engagement advisor after his endearing performance in Trash Dance, will reprise his crane solo to close out the night.

Krissie Marty

“” We take a lot of time to learn that and to build relationships, to then have people perform. They have to trust us too. The gala is the company’s biggest yet, with a goal of raising $100,000. Still, the gala is designed mostly as a community social event. Many Forklift supporters are dancers who look forward to networking and getting their groove on together. And as the company has proven, everyone else is a dancer, too. The company often finds new projects through alumni connections, so events that practice community connection are vital. “So, how do we get people together in a common space who may not typically gather so we can build capacity for folks to do hard work together?” reflects Orr. “Ultimately I think what Krissie and I are working to do at Forklift is to create opportunities for people to build relationships; to listen and to develop empathy and understanding across all kinds of differences.”

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Choreographing each performance exposes the Forklift team to new jobs and ideas that may take years to internalize. Austin Woman asked Allison Orr and Krissie Marty what they learned from five of the projects featured at the gala. The Gondola Project (2003, 2004) K: Allison has a story that I love, where she’s like, “Do it out of the boat first.” She learned when you put gondoliers in the boat, then you can’t talk to them. We always joke about that. A: I learned not to fight with my collaborators. I got really mad at one of the gondoliers, and I just learned, almost instantly, that was a bad idea. I’m in a collaborative relationship, and it is not my collaborators’ job to listen to me complain about them. And I learned about the power of apology. PowerUp (2013) K: We both learned to climb a 40-foot utility pole! And [we learned] the choreography and coordination it takes to get power to our houses. Line workers are problem solvers and work with risk everyday. They are natural performers. A: Terrell, the transmission lineman, free climbed the transmission tower 100 feet up in the air and then sat out on the arm. The beauty of putting movement...in this case virtuosic movement that few of us can do, with lighting and music, [is] awe-inspiring. What art can do when all the elements come together...I will never forget that moment. Take Me Out to Downs Field (2014, 2020) K: I keep learning so much about baseball at Downs Field. The ball field means so much to the players and community,

past and present. From hearing childhood memories to learning about civil rights organizing, I regularly hear new stories and find more connections to this historic field. A: That was really our first project that Krissy and I did. It was the first time we really worked with a neighborhood and a community story. This wasn’t just the story of work. It was the story of a place and the role that a place played in the community’s lives, and our city’s life. And I learned about the generosity of the community to share their stories with us. The Trees of Govalle (2015) K: Arborists are like artists. When they prune a tree they are sculpting. They do intense physical labor and simultaneously work with living things and shape a tree’s growth. It’s like they sculpt the future. A: I learned what unique characters arborists are and how people who care for trees are a special breed. They’re really caring for living organisms. Their whole approach is so much about honoring lifeforce. Caring for living creatures impacts how they approach their work. My Park, My Pool, My City (2017-2019) K: I learned how much people love pools. The aquatics and maintenance staff and the community all see pools as vital public space. After making dances at three different neighborhood pools, we do too! A: We learned the power of inviting people to participate. What a warm invitation—in the way that people want to be invited—means and how quickly people will show up if they’re invited to do something that matters to them. I also learned about the value of storytelling and of humanizing city problems.

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WHERE TO WORK

ARE YOU HIRING?

Advertise your open positions here! Austin Woman reaches a very desirable, diverse and professional audience where you can find the next superstar for your team. Email us at sales@awmediainc.com to find out more!

TEXAS DISPOSAL SYSTEMS INC. Marketing Associate

The marketing associate is responsible for supporting and implementing a wide variety of marketing, communications and community relations projects, including website updates, eblasts and collateral development, as well as partnership, sponsorship and event support. They even get to help with events like Blues on the Green, Fiesta and more! The senior marketing coordinator is responsible for planning and executing marketing campaigns through marketing channels such as email, print, digital, billboard, radio and more in order to drive brand awareness. This position has a strong emphasis in digital marketing and requires a desire to learn and grow in this field.

PINWHEEL Director of Fulfillment Operations

Pinwheel is a mission-driven startup in Austin working on the first smartphone built to foster healthy lifelong tech habits in kids. We’ve built an awesome product, sold thousands of units, raised venture capital and are moving into full growth mode. Our fulfillment team is growing! If you’re a natural at paying attention to detail and take pride in producing quality results, we have an opportunity available! We’re searching for a high performer looking for a steady, consistent job on a team where their contribution makes an impact.

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MY VINYASA PRACTICE Yoga Instructor, C-IAYT Yoga Therapist, Marketing Coordinator, Yoga Teacher Training Yoga instructor with one to five years of experience who is comfortable teaching vinyasa flow, hatha flow, yin, restorative and Yoga Nidra. C-IAYT yoga therapist with experience working in clinical settings or clinical research. Marketing coordinator with experience routing and scheduling creative media on multiple platforms including social media. Yoga teacher trainer with five+ years of experience leading yoga teacher training in person; must be willing to receive supplementary training.

SERPAPI Senior Web Designer

Austin | Full-time | ONSITE or FULLY REMOTE (We’re a remotefirst company) | $150k 1099 SerpApi is the API to scrape and parse search engine results. We deeply support Google, Google Maps, Google Images, Bing, Baidu and many more. Our current stack is Ruby, Rails, MongoDB and React.JS. We are looking for a senior web designer, a senior frontend engineer and a senior backend engineer. For the senior web designer position, we’re looking for someone to give us a strong visual direction and experience in CSS, JS or React are definitely plusses, but not required. We have an awesome work environment: We are a remotefirst company. We do continuous integration, continuous deployments, code reviews, code pairings, profit sharing and most communication is async via GitHub. We value super strong transparency, do open books, have a public roadmap and contribute to the EFF.

STEALTH POWER Chief of Staff

Stealth Power is a fast-growing cleantech automotive startup located in Austin. We design and build idle mitigation and power systems to help the largest fleets in the world run on clean energy, ending our over-reliance on fossil fuels and working toward a fully electric future. We’re seeking an efficient, highly organized technical chief of staff to serve as a key resource, right hand and force multiplier to Stealth Power’s COO, Shannon Sentell. This is not an administrative role. It’s ideal for an engineer ready to supercharge their growth on the strategy and leadership side of the business. As part of the broader engineering team, you’ll support client delivery, technical specifications, operations management and communications. You will have the opportunity to lead the development of results-oriented and action-driven recommendations to key business questions that support longterm growth

Sales Manager

We’re seeking someone with a passion for sales and the drive to level up as a leader. As a key member of the sales and marketing team, you will manage prospective customers through the sales life cycle, working cross-functionality to build materials that convert and discover new market opportunities. You will be interacting directly with prospective and new customers, both from our Austin office and on the road. In year one, this role will entail approximately 40% travel.

AUSTIN WOMAN Advertising Account Executive This is an opportunity to join a well-respected company in the fastest growing city in the country. Austin Woman is at a critical inflection point and is seeking a sales executive who is self-driven, curious, and collaborative in nature. Creativity, adaptability and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment are essential. You will be focused on prospecting, qualifying, handling introductory calls and scheduling and executing meetings. You must have great communication skills both written and verbal. If you are driven to achieve a higher level of success, you will find challenges and real rewards with us with unlimited income potential. We have a solid flow of incoming leads, as well as existing accounts to augment your prospecting. We are looking for 2+ years of sales experience, a bonus if it is in media sales. Pay: $45,000.00 - $75,000.00 per year.

SOLARWINDS Inside Sales Representative

SolarWinds is seeking an enthusiastic self-motivated inside sales representative to join our thriving global sales team. SolarWinds provides powerful and affordable IT management software to customers worldwide. We scale to meet agency needs for continuous monitoring, cyber security, network operations, compliance, data center operations and IT consolidation. This person would execute activities for prospecting, lead generation and selling of SolarWinds products to existing customers; qualify inbound and outbound leads and respond to customer inquiries, assist potential customers during the product-evaluation process, create quotes and new customer accounts, coordinate with distribution and channel partners; and proactively sell into the installed base. We are looking for sales professionals who have two to three years of selling experience in high tech and are eager to learn, competitively drive growth in their areas and are excellent in communicating effectively. Apply today!

ALL WEB LEADS (AWL) Inside Sales Account Executive

Are you a sales professional who has a desire in building relationships and a passion for selling and providing the best solutions for customers? We are hiring inside sales representatives who enjoy taking a consultative selling approach to ensuring new agent customers are successfully closed, adopt the full suite of AWL products and services and are educated on how AWL can help them grow their business and improve their bottom line. We welcome both entry-level and seasoned sales professionals to apply!

Scan or go to the link to apply and find out who else is hiring!

ATXWOMAN.COM/WHERE-TO-WORK

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ON THE MONEY

THE LONG AND SHORT ON SHORT-TERM RENTALS

HOW TO INVEST IN THIS REAL-ESTATE TREND. BY JENNY HOFF

What would you do with an extra $600 a month? Most people would spend it, save it or add a little extra to their 401(k). When Austin-based freelance writer John Egan refinanced his mortgage and started saving $600/month, he decided to commit the extra cash to a much bigger investment to change his financial future. In February 2021, while the world was still on lockdown and travel sparse, Egan decided to get into the short-term rental business. Finding Austin too expensive, he looked at cities where he had family or friends, while still being popular travel destinations. Nashville seemed a good place to start. Using a realtor friend of the family, he found a charming home with Insta-worthy decor in the world’s country music capital. Find out how much you can borrow Seven months later, he is closing on his fourth short-term rental property—this one in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, near Dollywood. “It’s been a whirlwind of a year,” says Egan. “But when you’re applying for loans, you see how much you can borrow. I was surprised by how much I qualified for.” His other properties are in Palm Springs and Galveston, Texas. Loans for investment properties are a little stricter, with most needing about a 25% down payment. But Egan says having patience and keeping emotion out of the transactions will help you find the right properties and avoid overspending. “A lot of this has been a leap of faith,” he says. “What has really helped me along the way is fantastic realtors, a good working relationship with lenders and I’ve done my research on towns that do well with short-term rentals. You need to have a bit of an entrepreneurial mindset when you are taking this on. This isn’t a hobby; this is a business.”

54 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

Keep your day job Once Egan got the shortterm rental bug, he started cashing out other forms of investments he had to make down payments for the properties. He ensures each place is furnished with character, so it’s not just a place to stay but also a place to photograph and share on social media. All of this takes work. Egan wanted to keep his day job, so he opted to hire management companies to run each property. Even though they take 20-30% of the profits, they also take care of all the little details and marketing that he wouldn’t have time to do. Treat it like a business One of the hardest lessons when buying a property for an investment versus a personal home is to look at it with an objective eye and be willing to let something go if it strays from your budget. “You’re never going to find something that you are 100% in love with,” says Egan. “You might ask yourself, ‘Would I live there?’ Maybe not. But, ‘Is this a great place for a short-term renter?’ Yes.” Although Egan has moved fast in the past year, sweeping up multiple properties, he says he does his due diligence on each area, how much rentals bring in, whether he can turn one property into two revenue streams (i.e, a duplex), property tax implications and upkeep. The other secret is to find a local realtor who really knows the market, has experience in finding short-term rentals and can guide you to the right property. Real estate investing can feel a lot scarier than the stock market, but even if times get tough, John Egan knows he has property he can sell and prices he can adjust, giving him more power than the stock market allows and a huge potential for a solid passive income stream in his future.

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SIPS & TIPS

WINE IS FOR THE PEOPLE

SOMMELIER RAE WILSON SHARES HER THOUGHTS ON WINEMAKING AND HOW TO MAKE IT TRULY ACCESSIBLE FOR EVERYBODY. BY TORI KLEIN

When reflecting on her career in winemaking, Rae Wilson says, “Life can surprise you in a lot of ways.” The sommelier, photographer and former musician shares, “I definitely had some surprising turns that I just embraced. You can end up where you never thought you might be, but that’s some of the beauty in life.” Wilson started her company Wine for the People in 2014, originally functioning as a consulting business and now solely focusing on producing wine.

What has it been like to be a woman in wine? It’s been a challenge, especially on the production side. The wine industry is incredibly vast, but generally where you see women is in marketing and sales. While that’s great, it would be ideal to have women in every part of the industry. We have been greatly underrepresented and haven’t been given the same opportunities. In the first couple places I worked, I was met with a lot of resistance. I had to fight for my spot—I couldn’t just show up and do my job but had to spend a lot of time proving that I deserved to be there. Now, with being my own boss, I get to define how I work and how I do things. I’ve actually found a really great supportive and open community here in Texas and feel like I can see the contributions we make to this fresh, young market. 56 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

Photos by Manda Levy of A Fine Grain.

What inspired you to start Wine For The People? At that point, I had a lot of experience studying wine and winemaking. Seeing restaurants that needed professionals to consult with them and train their staff was a driving force. Also, on the consumer level, there is a lot of formality around wine, which is very different from the most traditional regions associated with winemaking. It’s not an elitist beverage in Europe or associated with an upper class in other parts of the world. Because of that association in the U.S., people here often feel overwhelmed or intimidated by wine. I wanted to find ways for people to be able to approach it more openly. Making wine more accessible, whether in a restaurant or in a consumer fashion, was really important to me. I wanted to show people that yes, winemaking is a fascinating process and can be endlessly interesting, but enjoying wine can also be as simple as “Do you like it? Great.” If you enjoy it, we don’t have to talk about its origin or its history or its climate. But if you want to turn it into a lifetime obsession as I do, then you can.

“” I definitely had some surprising turns that I just embraced. You can end up where you never thought you might be, but that’s some of the beauty in life. What are your thoughts on sustainability in wine? First of all, no broad stroke can be applied to a region as large as Texas. However, water usage is a huge concern. When looking at crops, we see that wine grapes are far more sustainable than other commodity crops such as peanuts and cotton. Therefore, people exploring with plots of grapevines are hopeful. Long term, we are still learning how to farm each area and find balance in vineyard sites. That is something that takes time, familiarity and generations. I think many places in this state will continue to be planted and different vines will prove to be at home there, revealing varieties and farming techniques that will give us longterm sustainability. What community have you found in wine? As a business, we are connected to the ground beneath our feet and the farmers who grow our grapes. Wine is inherently communal. I’m making something that connects people, something that is used in celebrations, the most simple meal, in friends getting together. It connects us to people but also to the environment. As an industry, we need to build more pathways and open more doors for people. Right now, the industry is mainly represented by men with a lot of financial resources, meaning that there need to be direct invitations to women to join this business. There is a place for you, and we need you. When we start to open these doors, we will start to see the potential of what kinds of wine we can make here in Texas, not to mention in the rest of the world. My excitement comes from examining how we can get more people involved to discover what the true expression of this place is. Any advice for those looking to build careers in the wine industry? Do some studying and research on your own to find an area of the industry that really interests you. Try an internship in that corner to learn some more about the industry and see where that takes you. Seek out mentors that can teach you about different aspects of the industry and direct you in your study of wine. This industry needs a lot more women, a lot more people from all different walks of life, so I encourage you to seek out contacts that can help open doors. I am happy to be one of them.

RECIPE REVEAL

A LOVE LETTER TO CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Melinda Reese is bringing coastal comfort food to Austin. BY ALLIE JUSTIS

this past year when she co-founded the Huckleberry food truck back in June 2020. For Reese, the road was rocky at times. But at the heart of it, her love for the food she grew up with made her determined to push through so that Austinites would learn to love coastal comfort food as she does. “Our concept for the food truck was bringing Gulf Coast-inspired comfort food to Austin,” says Reese. “We grew up fishing and basically having our food as fresh as you could get it. So really, it was just a matter of asking ourselves, ‘Hey, why don’t we bring this nostalgic aspect of coastal foods into our community as well?’” Starting a new food truck was a difficult task for the Huckleberry Hospitality team in the midst of the pandemic; however, the Austin community showed up to support during every step of the process, leaving Reese speechless every time. “We are just beyond grateful at this point,” says Reese. “We stood on the shoulders of that support the Austin community gave us, and those individuals who would come out in the beginning and those little bits of affirmation from people was the main thing that got us through.” For Reese, this food truck is like a love letter to all of her favorite moments as a kid living back on the coast in Florida. The nostalgia of the flavors, coupled with her passion for sustainable, eco-friendly cooking has truly made this food truck a unique experience for people who love coastal cooking. “In the bay, my brothers, sisters and I would go down to the water and catch blue crabs during the day,” Reese recalls. “Then in the evenings my mother would make us these lettuce wraps with rice and cucumbers, and we’d mix and match to have all sorts of different varieties. I tried it with steak or chicken,” she continues. “But ultimately the blue crab version is my favorite because it’s a nostalgic blend of everything that I grew up with as a kid.”

58 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

Phooto by Melinda Reese. Photos courtesy of Melinda Reese.

Melinda Reese brought some much-needed Gulf Coast cuisine to Austin

BLUE CRAB LETTUCE WRAPS (8 SERVINGS) Ingredients:

Lettuce Wraps:

Sauce (optional):

Crab Mixture:

1 head living butter lettuce, picked and washed

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 lb. blue crab meat, picked 1/2 celery stalk, finely diced 1/4 sweet onion, finely diced 1 garlic clove 1/4 cup Duke’s Mayonnaise 1/4 cup parsley 1/2 lemon, juiced 1 teaspoon kosher salt Pinch of black pepper

1/2 lb. crab mixture

1/4 cup crema 1/4 cup Crystal Hot Sauce

1 large avocado, sliced 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced 1/4 cup red onion, sliced 1 cilantro bunch, chopped 1 serrano pepper, sliced (optional) 1 lime, quartered Pinch of salt

Directions: 1. In a small bowl, gently mix all the ingredients of the crab mixture together. 2. Take one spoonful of the crab mixture and spread it out in a lettuce leaf. 3. Add one slice of avocado and dress it with the assorted vegetables to your liking, and add the serranos for heat as you need. 4. Finish with a sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lime. NOTE: To add a kick to your dish, mix sauce ingredients together and serve alongside. ATXWOMAN.COM | 59

I AM AUSTIN WOMAN

KNOW YOUR CITY

Six Square CEO Pamela Benson Owens wants Austin to feel like home for everyone who lives here. BY PAMELA BENSON OWENS

relocated for a job. When we arrived, we lived in a hotel on what was then known as Town Lake until we found a house. While I cannot claim to be a unicorn (a native Austinite), what I can say is that from the moment I arrived, I loved Austin. From having braces on my teeth to babies on my hip, this city has been my home base for over three decades. My appreciation and ongoing love affair with Austin spans from the Paramount Theater on Congress, to the streets of East Austin and all the way out to the suburbs of Round Rock, each of those areas of town where my formative and growing years occurred. I grew up in a household with two parents who firmly believed that you cannot be a productive citizen in a city you don’t know. This perspective was the foundation for how we navigated partaking in activities, festivals, community-service projects, plays, library visits, walking the lake, learning the history, taking tours and learning about the importance of giving back and being a part of something bigger than ourselves. My brother and I benefited from parents who made sure we immersed ourselves in what has ended up being our forever city. This approach always made me curious about this city. In high school I truly tried to hold out as long as I could before sneaking down to Sixth Street (the one location that was forbidden in our household) to see what it was all about. I remember walking down Sixth Street in complete wonder and awe. The lights were mesmerizing, the music intoxicating and the people-watching legendary…right up until I got caught! That decision cost me my 16th birthday party, but to this day I don’t regret it. It confirmed for me what I had always thought in my youth: Austin is a multifaceted and unique place to live. It was a different time then. Austin was a big city that still felt small in a lot of ways. Today, Austin has grown beyond imagination, and with that growth has come some good things as well as some challenges. Now that I’m an adult, I am so grateful for the seeds my parents planted about the importance of knowing your city and being actively involved in making it better. As a Black female entrepreneur and CEO of Six Square, Austin’s Black Cultural Arts District, if I hadn’t had that pivotal perspective from my parents, I could have easily become a fair-weather fan of Austin. The last several years have challenged me to draw on the same wonder and awe I felt the night I stepped onto Sixth Street for the very first time. The truth is, the city I have loved for decades hasn’t always loved me or Black people very well. Oh, Austin, how I love you, but there have been times when I wanted to break up. I encounter so many people who haven’t taken the time to learn the city or its history, who believe Austin’s story only started when they arrived. Those who simply haven’t stopped long enough to get curious about why there is such visible disparity, or why a highway was built that divides the city from east to west, or how the residue from the 1928 Master Plan (a plan that placed Black citizens within six square miles on the east side of town with minimal resources) still perpetuates itself in inequitable ways.

60 | AUSTIN WOMAN | SEPTEMBER 2021

So often this history has broken my heart, but it’s also opened my eyes. It would be easy to get mad (which is absolutely justified) or leave this city behind. Instead I remain here with a commitment to emulate what I’ve seen from so many others who have come before me, including my own parents. As a child I marched at the Capitol with my mom and sat in the back of the room watching my father lead meetings at the Urban League. Their strategy has always been to know the city and work to make needed changes, create awareness, remove obstacles, build a legacy and make the community better for all. So that’s what I will continue to do. There is no doubt that this city will continue to change, but one thing is for sure: the seeds my parents planted never will. Austin is my forever home, and I want it to feel like home to all who come here too.

Photo by Korey Howell.

I’ve been in Austin since I was a kid. We landed here when my father was

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September 2021

Articles inside

RECIPE REVEAL Melinda Reese

I AM AUSTIN WOMAN Pamela Benson Owens

SIPS & TIPS Sommelier Rae Wilson

ON THE MONEY How to Invest in This Real-estate Trend

SEE HER WORK Valérie Chaussonnet

STAFF PICKS What’s a milestone you’re celebrating in 2021?

COVER WOMAN CALLBACK Kathy Valentine

COUNT US IN The Intersectionality of Women in the Workplace

PROFILE Dolores Guerrero-Davis

WHERE TO WORK Are you hiring?

PROFILE Vox Jo Hsu

FROM THE DESK OF Spike Gillespie