Secretary: Patricia Whiteside

Patricia Whiteside has been a Certified Public Accountant since November1982 and is currently the president of the Austin firm, Whiteside & Huver CPA, PC which was incorporated in 2000.  Prior to 2000, Pat was a sole proprietor for 18 years and also served for three years in the Texas State Auditors Office and nine years with the Internal Revenue Service.

Pat received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting in August 1980 and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in December 1972.  She is licensed by the Texas State Board of Accountancy and is a member of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants and its local Austin Chapter. Pat is a member of the Oak Hill Business and Professional Association.  She is also a member of the Board of Directors of both the South Austin Civic Club and the Lake Travis Lodges Marina Association.  She is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Austin Independent School District.

Pat has been married to W. Robin Whiteside since February 14, 1976 and they have two adult children, William R. Whiteside, Jr. and Brandy E.Whiteside. 

MEMBERS

Rolando Fernandez

Mr. Fernandez is currently the Assistant Director of the Contract and Land Management Department for the City of Austin, with proven leadership skills, experience building and executing budgets, working in high pressure environments and collaborating effectively with a mix of executives, staff and members of the City Council.

Formerly an Aerospace Physiologist with the United States Air Force, Rolando and his family moved to the Austin area from California, and he has been involved with its growth ever since.

Rolando is a current Mentor with the Seedling’s Promise program and a member of the International City/County Management Association and the International Hispanic Network.  He looks forward to bringing his skills to work for Seedling at the Board level.

Michael Garcia

Michael Garcia serves as the Vice President for Network Surgical Services at Seton Healthcare Family. He is responsible for overseeing operations within the surgical services area for 10 hospitals in Seton. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, operational management and implementation of process improvement strategies leading to clinical excellence. Mr. Garcia began his career as a Registered Nurse in 1991. He has many years of clinical and management experience in the health care environment and has worked in a variety of hospital and non-hospital settings both here and abroad, most notably as the Rush Exchange Fellow in which he served as a clinical consultant for Guy’s and St. Thomas Hospital Trust in London, England. 

In addition to his career as a Registered Nurse, Mr. Garcia obtained a Juris Doctor from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. As an attorney he specialized in Medical Malpractice litigation.
 
Mr. Garcia is a member of the American Nurses Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and a Board Certified Nurse Executive. He also serves as a Board Member for the YMCA..

Trevor G. Green

Trevor Green was born at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois in 1971. His parents, Dr. and Mrs. William Green, thankfully brought him home to Austin two weeks later. He graduated from St. Stephens Episcopal High School in 1990. Trevor received his undergraduate degrees in Language and International Trade from Clemson University in 1994. After the completion of his undergraduate studies, he returned to Austin and began working for Dell Computers’ Corporate Sales Division, with his primary responsibility being the acquisition of new Fortune 500 accounts.

In 1998, Trevor enrolled in St. Mary’s University School of Law and received his Juris Doctor Degree in the spring of 2001. He was admitted to practice in the State of Texas during the fall of that same year. He worked on major pharmaceutical liability cases as a contract attorney at the Austin office of Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P. In December of 2002, Mr. Green accepted a position at Blazier, Christensen, Bigelow and Virr, P.C. Trevor's involvement with Blazier, Christensen, Bigelow & Virr, P.C. actually began when he was fourteen and was employed by the Firm to work in the copy room and function as the Firm’s “downtown runner” (because he did not yet have a driver’s license). Since that time, he has been employed by the Firm as a runner and legal research assistant while in high school and college and as a law clerk while in law school. Hence, his ties to the Firm are of a personal as well as a professional nature.

Trevor Green is a member of the Travis County Bar Association, Travis County Construction Law Section, State Bar Construction Law Section, Austin Young Lawyers Association, St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic Church and Grey Rock Golf Club. When not actively practicing law, he can usually be found hunting, fishing, playing golf and spending cherished time with his wife, Jamie, and son, Hunter.

David Grant Halpern

David Halpern has been an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas since 1994. He is a member of the Agency's General Litigation Division. He serves on the Attorney General's Training and Recruiting Committees. He is the founder and director of the Attorney General's Distinguished Speakers Program and he is a regular speaker at in-house and inter-agency seminars and workshops.  In addition to U.T. Law, his teaching background includes service as faculty for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the National Association of Attorney's General, and the State Bar of Texas. David is an author of nationally published articles and a contributing author to the book, Practicing Medicine in the 21st Century.

David received his undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin with High Honors. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in 1994.  David is board certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.  He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the College of the State Bar of Texas. He is licensed to practice in the State of Texas and is admitted to practice before the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States District Courts of Texas.

David is a member of the Board of Directors for the Mental Health America of Texas, The Sims Foundation, and is a participating mentor in the Seedling's Promise Mentoring Program. He and Linda Sue have been married for twenty-seven years and is fortunate to be the father to Joshua Nathaniel Halpern and Katelyn Rose Halpern.

Patrick Patterson

Patrick Patterson is the Executive Director of the University of Texas Outreach Center.  He began his former teaching career in 1981 at the high school level in Chicago, IL where he taught Algebra, Physical Education, and coached basketball and baseball. Upon completion of his Masters Degree in Education from Chicago State University in 1983, he moved to Austin where he taught for seven years at Blackshear Elementary, and served as asst. principal at Summitt Elementary for two years. In 1992, he began his tenure as an AISD principal at Reilly Elementary, where he remained until his move in 1996 to Dobie MS. In 1999, he was named principal at Lanier HS, where he remained until 2004.

In 2004, as part of the district blueprint initiative, Mr Patterson was named principal of LBJ HS, where he recently retired. Some of the previously mentioned schools attained State and National Recognition during the time of his service. Reilly Elementary became "Recognized" in 1996, Lanier was ranked 202 in the top 1200 High Schools, according to Newsweek, during his last year of administration in 2004.  LBJ cracked the top 100 at 95 in 2007 in the same Newsweek annual ranking system. Mr Patterson is the only person in the history of AISD to have successfully served as principal at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. In 2009 Patrick Patterson was selected as the APIE - AISD High School Principal of the Year.  He retired from AISD in 2010.

Mr Patterson enjoys reading, music, weight-training, fast cars, and Harley-Davidsons in his spare time. He has been married since 1992 to his wife Janet. He has two daughters, Avaire and Amani.

Daniel J. Rourke, III

Dan has over thirty years of leadership experience in the software industry. His operational and startup successes leading teams in customer support, software development, and services development and delivery have earned him a reputation for being a results-oriented executive. His expertise includes strategic planning, operational management, and large-scale project management. Mr. Rourke is an expert in customer support design and implementation. He has worked across a spectrum of support operations from a high volume retail operation with one million calls per year, to a low volume, high complexity support center.

Mr. Rourke is currently serving as Vice President of Global Customer Support for Cadence Design Systems, the leading Electronic Design Automation software provider.  Prior to joining Cadence, he spent nineteen years in technical and management leadership positions at IBM.

Mr. Rourke holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Notre Dame in Mathematics.

Carol Wright

As the Vice President of Educational Services of Skillpoint Alliance, Carol oversees Skillpoint’s Educator Professional Development initiatives.  Committed to improving college and career success for youth in the Capital area, Carol supervises the implementation of Skillpoint’s annual College and Career Fair for more than 3,000 Central Texas high school juniors and seniors.

A true advocate for career and technology education, Carol also coordinates business and industry visits for guidance counselors and coordinates an annual Educators Conference. Prior to coming to Skillpoint in 1998, Carol worked for eleven years as the Director of School-to-Career Programs for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Carol is the recipient of the 1997 Layperson Exemplary Service Award from the Texas Counseling Association, the 2006 Career & Technology Association of Texas Award and the 2009 Community Action Network Butler Award. She is also active in the community outside of Skillpoint. Carol has volunteered for eleven years with the Austin Area Heritage Council and has served as chair for the last six, helping coordinate the annual Austin Area MLK Community Celebration.  She currently serves on the KLRU Community Advisory Board and chairs the education and scholarship committee at her church. She also mentors a middle school student weekly through the Seedling's Promise Program. Carol is the grandmother of seventeen grandchildren.

MEMBERS AT LARGE

Mary Alice Deike

Mary Alice Deike is uniquely qualified to support the foundation in the area of Strategic Planning and Vision.  Selected as Region XIII Principal of the Year, Mary Alice was principal of Fredericksburg High School from 1994 to 2002.  Under her leadership, Fredericksburg High School was named a U.S. Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, was rated Exemplary by the Texas Education Agency in 2001 and rated Recognized the six previous years.

Mary Alice holds M.Ed. and B.S. degrees from Southwest Texas State University and was the proud principal of Akins High School in AISD.  She has seen first hand the results that Seedling CAMP has had and Akins was proud to announce that three of the four original students who participated in CAMP (College Admissions Mentoring Program) achieved Commended or Semi Finalist level for National Merit recognition in 2006.  In 2009 Ms Deike graduated from the University of Texas with a doctorate degree in Education Leadership.

Raffy Garza-Vizcaino

Raffy Garza-Vizcaino is Principal of RGV Consulting and is an authority in educational leadership.  Raffy was formerly the Executive Principal for Middle Schools of the Leadership Development Academy of AISD. In this position with AISD, Ms. Vizcaino acted as a mentor to Principals and collaborates with the Associate Superintendents to form the kind of teaching environment that nurtures both teacher and student.  A former AISD Principal at both the middle and elementary levels (Martin Middle School and Brooke Elementary School),

Ms. Vizcaino is an experienced administrator as well as an experienced teacher. Raffy began her career in teaching in 1976 and has seen many changes along the way.  She earned her Master's in Education at A&M Tarleton University and has won numerous awards for both teaching and leadership.  A few highlights have been Region XIII Teacher of the Year, AISD Teacher of the Year and AISD Jr. High Teacher of the Year.

Russell McElrath

Russell McElrath is the Grounds Foreman for the Austin Independent School District and brings his great expertise and experience to the Seedling Foundation in the area of Campus Beautification and general board activities. 

His coordination and knowledge of the AISD properties help us to do wonderful things for our urban school sites.