Courtney Morris

Courtney Desiree Morris is a community organizer and writer living in Austin, TX. She is a doctoral candidate in the African Diaspora Program in Social Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and her research focuses on exploring Afro-Nicaraguan women’s consciousness and political activism since the end of the Sandinista Revolution. Courtney is a member of The Austin Project (2005-present). She has been organizing in Austin since 2001 and the bulk of her organizing has focused on working with youth, women, and communities of color. She has worked closely with the Youth Liberation Network (2001-2006), Cimarron: Youth Building Community (2006-2008), Communities in Schools (2002-2003) and has collaborated with various community organizations including Austin Voices for Youth and Education, PODER, and Resistencia Bookstore. She currently serves (proudly!) as a member of the Local Council for the Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change.

Robert Jensen

Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism and director of the Senior Fellows Honors Program of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Jensen joined the UT faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in media ethics and law in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade. At UT, Jensen teaches courses in media law, ethics, and politics. Jensen is the author of All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, (Soft Skull Press, 2009); Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002). Jensen is also a founding member of Third Coast Activist Resource Center and a longtime activist in movements for economic, racial, and gender justice.

Carmen Llanes

Carmen Dolores Llanes is a community organizer and native of Austin, TX. She has worked with a variety of organizations and coalitions citywide and across the country, including Marathon Kids, Sustainable Food Center, People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER), Southwest Key Programs, Texans United For Families (TUFF), Urban Roots, Austin Fair Trade Coalition, the Southwest Network for Environmental & Economic Justice (SNEEJ), and Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change, and is a Green For All Academy Fellow. Carmen has participated in collaborative struggles and victories in Environmental Justice, Affordable Housing, Immigrant Rights, Neighborhood Development, Food Access, Public Education, Police-Community Relations, Voter Empowerment, and Youth Leadership Development. She graduated A.B. Environmental Studies in 2007 from the University of Chicago, focusing on agricultural and industrial trade policies in the U.S. and Mexico, including NAFTA’s immense influence on migration, food production, and the environment. She believes that intergenerational organizing is one of the most powerful tools for creating real social change.

D’Ann Johnson

D’Ann has more than two decades of legal experience in the areas of nonprofit management, banking policy, and the development of legal resources and training programs, and is a longstanding advocate for cooperatives. She currently serves as the Legal Services Director for Texas C-BAR, an organization that provides free legal services to Texas nonprofits working to improve the quality of life in low-income neighborhoods. An honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, D’Ann’s prior work experience includes serving as legal counsel to state and local governmental entities and a nonprofit membership association of attorneys. She is a graduate of Leadership America, a Friar, and a founding board member of a pro bono legal program for immigrants. D’Ann is also responsible for coordinating C-BAR’s work with community-based nonprofits in rural communities.

Tanya Ladha

Tanya Ladha has been an active member of the Austin community since she moved here over 10 years ago. After graduating from UT in 2004, she travelled and worked in Central America with a small women’s trade cooperative, which sparked her long-term interest in the cooperative movement. In 2006, Tanya began working at PeopleFund. There, she organized with the small business and east Austin community, hosted economic summits addressing regional challenges and brought together diverse groups in search of common goals.  Additionally, she worked as as a community lender aiding in the growth of small, local businesses and non-profit organizations.  She is now pursuing a dual graduate degree at UT Austin in Public Policy and Business

Christie Zangrilli

Prior to joining Tribe Creative Agency — a local, democratically run advertising agency — Christie ran her own graphic and web design studio in both New York and Austin, working for clients ranging from small businesses to large corporations. In addition to this 2D foundation, Christie is well versed in 3D arts of environmental design, creating everything from interior graphics to innovative wallcovering products and installations. She also does work with non-profit organizations that are focused on developing a sustainable future such as Austin Green Art, Project H and Sol Design Lab. Christie has a BFA in Graphic Communications from New York University, and an MFA in Design from the University of Texas.

Ricardo Guerrero

Ricardo has been a lifelong cooperator since moving into College Houses cooperatives as a college freshman in 1986. He helped restart one one College Houses’ co-ops twice, serving as director of the house the second time and board of directors representative the first time. He went on to serve a 3-year term on the College Houses board as a Community Board Representative after finishing college, where he served as VP of the board. Near the end of that term the College Houses board nominated him to serve on the board of North American Students for Cooperation (NASCO), where he went on to serve two 3-year terms including stints as VP and Treasurer as well as serving on NASCO’s other NASCO Properties and NASCO Development Services boards during that time. Ricardo is also the former Social Media Director of the Austin chapter of the American Marketing Association, the former Chair and a continuing ambassador of the Social Media Ambassadors program of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, worked at one point for a cooperative fair trade organization Pueblo to People, did radio shows at KOOP radio, and is a current member of Wheatsville Food Co-op, Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery, as well as University Federal Credit Union, and a founding member of the Austin Cooperative Think Tank. Ricardo joined the Board of Cooperation Texas in July 2011.

Dana Curtis

Dana Curtis is a native Texan and one of the founding members of the Workers’ Assembly at Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery where she began working in January of 2010, overseeing the membership and investment campaign which brought the Co-op from a dream to reality. Currently she is on the Business Team and serves on Black Star’s Board of Directors. Dana attended the University of Texas at Dallas where she studied Literature and Philosophy and attended graduate school at Texas Women’s University. She taught undergraduate Women’s Studies at Texas Woman’s University before leaving academia to join the labor movement as a union organizer. Dana has committed her life to social justice and strongly believes in the transformative power of the cooperative model.

George Cheney is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the
University of Texas at Austin, where he arrived in July 2010.  Previously, he taught
at the universitis of Illinois, Colorado, Montana and Utah.  Also, he has lectured
and conducted research in Denmark, The Netherlands, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and New
Zealand, where he serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Waikato.
George has published eight books and around 100 articles, chapters, reviews, and op
eds.  Since completing his PhD at Purdue University in 1985, he has been active in
movements for peace, economic justice, and workplace democracy.    He has served on
and chaired a variety of non-profit boards as well as university and
campus-community committees.  George was director of the Tanner Human Rights Center
and the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at the University of Utah, 2006-2010. He
is a strong believer in service learning, civic engagement, and intergroup dialogue.
 George began studying the Mondragón worker cooperatives in the Basque Country,
Spain, in 1992 and has closely followed their expansion, interaction with the global
market, and struggles to maintain core social value commitments (such as equality,
solidarity and participation). He is currently collaborating with colleagues at
Mondragón University as well as at the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State
University.  He is delighted to participate in Austin's growing cooperative network.