Letter from the Director

This academic year marked a full year inperson following COVID-19 shutdowns when staff came back to campus on June 1, 2021 It is also my first full year as director. And what a full year it has been!

TxTC worked along the Texas-Mexico border with Rio Grande City and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension staff. Together, we focused on holistic ways to tackle public health issues and the City determined a comprehensive plan would allow the greatest avenue to discuss and strategize such an allencompassing grand challenge Galena Park is located along the Houston Ship Channel and is surrounded by industry-identified health and environmental concerns Researchers affiliated with the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center and Texas A&M Superfund Center modeled flooding and chemical release dispersions and developed green infrastructure design solutions the city is already beginning to implement We went back to La Grange for the fourth time to work closely with the police department on initiatives and priorities for their efforts in the community. We continued to work with Comanche County, a rural agricultural community facing new development pressures With them, TxTC re-envisioned the organization and documentation of the planning process. Housing innovations were explored with architecture faculty and the Texas A&M Real Estate Center on a number of projects TxTC also found itself back on the coast, working with passionate community members in Galveston to commemorate our state holiday and new national holiday, Juneteenth Additionally, faculty installed a notable art project in Caldwell, along with many other smaller efforts, outreach, and scholarship to tell the incredible story of community work

Not many people know, but I am a fourthgeneration Aggie. My great-grandfather, Joseph Hicks, a poor farmer from Pittsburgh, Texas was class of 1906 It holds a special meaning in my life that one hundred years later I would complete my degree at this same university. As I reflect on serving this university, I think about our land-grant mission and TxTC’s embodiment of teaching, research, and service We dedicate our service to Texans by listening, learning, validating, documenting, organizing, motivating, and propelling. Each project is not a box to check, but a quilt to stitching together the multitude of voices, opinions, hopes, and dreams within communities That is our charge: to cultivate tomorrow’s leaders beyond the classroom, to uncover new stories that necessitate research, and to serve Texans with our presence