Gary Sera serves as director and CEO of the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), starting his career there in 1993. Sera served as division director of TEEX’s Technology and Economic Development Division (TED) before being named director.
A member of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, Mr. Sera holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from California State University as well as master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona.
Rick Rhodes is a native Texan. After growing up in Sweetwater, he earned a degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. His career includes ownership of a successful small business as well as assignments in banking and mortgage lending.
Rhodes served four terms as the mayor of Sweetwater, and led Gov. Perry’s job creation initiative for two years. He currently serves as the Assistant Commissioner for Rural Economic Development for the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Carlton Schwab has been president/CEO of the Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC) since Feb. 1, 1999. Prior to his tenure at the TEDC, Schwab was director of development at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Schwab also spent time working in economic development at the local level as vice president of the Lubbock Board of City Development.
Schwab holds a master’s degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and a bachelor’s degree from Austin College in Sherman, Texas.
Penny Redington is the executive director of the Texas Association of Regional Councils (TARC). Prior to joining TARC, she was the Federal and State Legislative Liaison for the Texas Association of Counties. Redington also has a wealth of local government experience including service as Ellis County Judge from 1988 to 1994.
Judge Redington currently serves on the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, the Preparedness Coordinating Council of the Texas Department of State Health Services, and recently served on the Texas Governor’s Disaster Recovery & Renewal Commission. She is a graduate of Leadership Texas and a 2006 Fellow of the University of Texas Law School Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution. In addition, she is a Trustee Emeritus of the Culver Academies Educational Foundation.
Rusty Brockman serves as the director of economic development at The Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce. He retired from public education in 2001 after 28 years; 15 of those were with the Comal ISD as campus assistant principal, principal, and central office administrator.
Brockman graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science in health, education, and biology and later got his Master of Education and Administrators Certification from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Skip Mills is the director of San Antonio operations for the Texas Center for Applied Technology within the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), which is a part of the Texas A&M University System. Mills heads two interlinked sustainability laboratories, Environmental and Energy, comprised of over 21 professional engineers and scientists. He was also one of the key developers of the Brooks City-Base and Brooks City-Base Foundation in San Antonio.
A retired USAF Colonel with over 6,000 hours of flight time, Mills has over 35-years experience with industry and the military and holds a degree in mechanical engineering as well as a Master of Business Administration.
Judy Loden is the vice president and portfolio manager for the Greater Texas Capitol Corporation, an organization she started at the request of the U.S. Small Business Administration in 1994. Greater Texas Capital Corporation is a Certified Development Company that provides below market, 20-year fixed rate financing for eligible commercial real estate projects.
Loden also co-founded the Biotech Manufacturing Center which was the first bio-tech manufacturing incubator in the United States. She serves on the economic development advisory board of the Texas Engineering Extension Service, which is a member of the Texas A&M University System.
Pam Groce has been the innovative energy demonstration program manager with the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) for 14 years. Her focus at SECO is to promote renewable energy education and demonstrate technologies at public facilities across the state.
Groce is a member of the International and American Solar Energy Society, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, the Rural Alliance for Renewable Energy, and an honorary member of the Texas Solar Energy Society. Her education in energy and environmental studies is ongoing.
Bill Stansbury is the utilities training director for the Infrastructure Training & Safety Institute at the Texas Engineering Extension Service. He is responsible for training programs encompassing electric power, telecommunications, heavy equipment, code enforcement, and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC).
Stansbury has over twenty years of experience in training delivery, development, management and leadership.
