Board of Trustees

Tomás has extensive experience working in college access, supportinghistorically marginalized youth, who will be the first in their families to attend college, navigate high school and accomplish their post-secondary goals. In addition to teaching, he is also an experienced qualitative researcher. His research agenda is concerned with two primary inquiries: youth and community engagement. Within these two inquiries, he is interested in exploring the contexts of agency and identity. He is also an educator consultant, passionate about working with non-profit organizations and being a thought-partner to clients. His specialty focuses on issues and projects related to equity, diversity, inclusion, access, education, and curriculum development.

Tomás graduated with his Master’s and PhD in Education from the University of Rochester. He is a former Breakthrough student and teaching fellow, and he currently serves on the advisory board for 10,000 Degrees.

Christina is a director of global hardware solutions at NXP Semiconductors. She is a first-generation college graduate holding a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from St. Edward’s University and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Christina is a multi-generational Austinite and the Breakthrough mission is very personal to her.

Christina became involved with Breakthrough in 2014 and currently serves on Honor Roll steering committee. She has been a steadfast donor and most recently participated in the Celebrate-A-Senior gift drive. Christina recently rolled off the Hospice Austin board after 9 years of service. Her committee work included Finance and Performance Improvement. Other nonprofit involvement includes Texas Exes and Hispanic Impact Fund.

Julie Fisher is the Senior Manger of Global Corporate Impact at NI, formerly National Instruments. She manages NI’s Central Texas nonprofit relationships and the expansion of their global philanthropic strategy. As an Austin native, she is passionate about giving back to the community that raised her by championing causes including civic engagement, environmental initiatives, and education. Julie is proud to serve on the board of Leadership Austin and Texas State University’s Development Council.

Revlynn Lawson is a government relations professional with over 25 years experience. She began her career in public policy as a high school intern in the office of the late Congressman JJ “Jake” Pickle and later became a legislative aide to Congressman Lloyd Doggett while in law school.

Most recently, Revlynn was a partner in the Governmental Affairs Department at Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, a national law firm with a practice dedicated to the collection of delinquent government receivables. Her vast experience working in the realm of policy and politics, navigating complex issues and relationships with policymakers at all levels of government, negotiating issues impacting individuals and businesses are the cornerstones of her sustained success.

Revlynn is a proud 5th generation Texan and an active member of The Links, Incorporated and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She serves as a Board Member of several non-profit organizations including Breakthrough Central Texas, The Library Foundation of Austin, and the Center for Civic and Public Policy Improvement. She is also a member of the Advisory Council for Explore Austin.

Revlynn Lawson is a graduate of the University of Southern California with Bachelor degrees in Psychology and Sociology and a Master of Social Work. She received her Juris Doctor from Washington University Law School in St. Louis, MO. She lives in Austin, Texas with her black labrador retriever, Zora.

Mysha is a litigation senior associate at Baker Botts. She is a first-generation college graduate and attended The University of Texas at Austin earning a bachelor’s degree in French and Accounting, a Master’s of Accounting from the McCombs School of Business and a Juris Doctorate from UT School of Law.

She is dedicated to serving the local community through organizations focused on empowering those seeking social mobility. She is also dedicated to providing pro bono legal services to survivors of domestic violence and the organizations that support them.

Mysha has served in leadership positions in the Young Women’s Alliance, co- chaired Austin’s 40 under 40 event, and served as Board Treasurer for The Dream Come True Foundation. She has been a steadfast donor to Breakthrough since 2014 and since then has served on Breakthrough’s Young Professional Outreach Committee, has volunteered as a college application coach and spoken at numerous career days.

Dr. Charles R. Martinez, Jr. is the 12^th dean of the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Martinez began his tenure as dean on January 1, 2019. Martinez’s scholarly work focuses on identifying factors that hinder or promote the success of children and families who are from vulnerable and underserved populations. He is particularly interested in how immigrant Latino families adjust to life in the U.S. and how to better harness culturally specific protective factors to ensure their success in navigating the many challenges associated with immigration. Martinez has led numerous national and international research projects designed to examine risk and protective factors involved in linking social and cultural factors to education and behavioral health disparities for Latino children and families, and to develop and test culturally specific interventions for at- risk families in the U.S. and in Latin America. Prior to joining Texas, Martinez was the Philip H. Knight Professor in the Department of Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership at the University of Oregon, where he also served as founding director of the Center for Equity Promotion. He is a nationally recognized scholar on organizational equity, cross-cultural research, and community engagement.

A first-generation college graduate, Martinez received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pitzer College, and his master’s degree and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology. Martinez holds the Lee Hage Jamail Regents Chair in Education and the Sid W. Richardson Regents Chair. He is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology.

Karey and her husband Chris Oddo have been Breakthrough supporters since 2015. Karey served on the Champions committee that year, invited by event chair Laurel Simmons. Karey joined the Development Council in 2016 and has been a significant contributor to our fundraising efforts. She and her husband Chris chaired the 2018 Champions Celebration and did an excellent job engaging their network. Karey is a 6th generation Austinite from the Nalle family, an Austin family dating back to the mid 1800’s.

Karey spent years as a commercial litigator with both Clark, Thomas & Winters and with Winstead. Currently, she is general counsel for a real estate company that owns and manages commercial properties in Austin and San Antonio. Karey won the 2014 Preservation Austin Merit Award for Restoration of a National Landmark property in downtown Austin. Karey has volunteered for numerous local charities and has passionately served on the Board of Directors of several non-profits such as: Helping Hand Home, The Junior League of Austin, Women’s Symphony League, Elizabeth Ann Seton Board, Preservation Austin, Inherit Austin, and Pioneer Farms. She is a past Coats for Kids Chair, which provided over thirty thousand coats to needy Central-Texas children, and she is also a graduate of Leadership Austin. Karey is proud mom to two precious pre-teens and two dogs – a Labrador and a Puggle. In her free time, she loves to travel with her family, entertain friends, keep current with political news, and read a good mystery.

In 2005 Walt Penn established Wealth Advisory Services of Raymond James, along with his partner Jenny Miller. From 1995 until 2005, Walt founded and served as President and CEO of The Penn Investment Group, Inc., an independent broker/dealer and registered investment advisor specializing in wealth management and alternative investments in the private and public equity arena, including the biotech, real estate and financial services areas. From 1987 to 1995, he served as an investment advisor with Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, now RBC Wealth Management. Walt holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from the University of Texas at Austin

Walt Penn is a former Breakthrough Central Texas Trustee, serving from 2013-2018. He also chaired the 2016- 2018 Growth Campaign, successfully raising $2.3M for the organization. Undeterred, he spearheaded the next campaign, the current $10M Breakthrough Challenge. Walt is a fierce advocate for Breakthrough students and its mission in Central Texas.

He has a long history of involvement with many other local organizations, including The Paramount Theater board, PeopleFund advisory board, The Seton Fund board, The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce board, SafePlace Foundation board, Brackenridge Children’s Hospital council, Caritas of Austin advisory board and the Texas Capital Bank advisory board. In 2016, Walt was recognized as the Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser of the year by the Associate of Fundraising Professionals, Greater Austin Chapter.

Mike serves as Chief Lending Officer for R Bank. Born and raised in Austin, TX, Mike attended O’Henry Middle School and Austin High School before venturing to the Midwest for college at the University of Notre Dame. After graduating with a B.A. in Finance in 2009, Michael began his career in Commercial Banking with PlainsCapital Bank in Austin. After 11+ years Michael joined VeraBank, where he led the Market’s commercial banking team specializing in small business & commercial real estate lending, private banking, and treasury management services. He was recently recruited to join R Bank to lead their entire commercial banking team across Central Texas and Fort Worth.Mike has been involved with Breakthrough in various capacities since 2014, including serving on the Development Committee, co-chairing the Honor Roll Steering Committee and fundraising for Amplify Austin and the Breakthrough Benefit Concert. Outside of Breakthrough, Mike has also volunteered with the Young Men’s Business League, Austin Sunshine Camps, the Real Estate Council of Austin, and most recently the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society where he was recognized as Central Texas Man of the Year.

Jabrell joined Breakthrough the summer before 7th grade as a part of the 2015 Austin cohort, spending his Breakthrough summers at UT and his Breakthrough Saturdays at St. Stephens. He graduated from LBJ High School and went on to attend UTSA where he became an active leader with the Epsilon Sigma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, NAACP and Men of Honor groups on campus. He also gave back as a Breakthrough AmeriCorp Summer Teaching Fellow and participated in the Breakthrough Internship Network. Jabrell graduated from UTSA with his Bachelor’s degree in Communications with a minor in Public Administration in December 2019. In May 2022, he earned his Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. Today, Jabrell works as an analyst for Ernst & Young and serves as the co-chair of Breakthrough Alumni Association’s inaugural steering committee.

Jessica founded Breakthrough Central Texas in 2001 and was the executive director until 2007. Since then, she has served as executive director and now executive leadership officer for the Webber Family Foundation.

Jessica has stayed involved with Breakthrough and most recently served as a co-chair for the Breakthrough Challenge Campaign. Additionally, she has served on the boards of KIPP Texas, MindPop and St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Jessica has three children who attend public and private schools throughout Austin.

 Jessica graduated with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University and a master’s in education from the University of Texas at Austin.

Tito’s work experience has included senior roles in government, investment banking, private equity and real estate development. He is the current Principal at Castle Road Capital.

His current professional focus is on energy and infrastructure investments in Mexico and affordable housing for working families in Central Texas.  From 2014 to 2019, Tito worked for EIG Global Energy Partners where he led the firm’s investment efforts in Mexico. Prior to joining EIG, Tito accumulated 23 years of experience in banking, holding senior leadership positions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.  At Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Tito was Mexico Country Executive as well as Chairman and CEO of Bank of America Mexico, S.A. and was responsible for senior relationships in both the public and private sectors as well as for overseeing the entirety of the bank’s business activities in Mexico including corporate and investment banking, capital markets and sales and trading.  Previous to his banking career, he worked five years for the Mexican Federal Government in several areas including the Ministry of Finance

Tito is a first-generation college graduate, who received a B.A. in Economics from Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico, a M.A. in Economics from the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City as well as a M.A. in Economics and a Master’s in Public and Private Management from Yale University. He is currently a member of the Board of Advisors of the Yale School of Management.

Monica Maldonado Williams is the manager of community affairs for UFCU where she supports UFCU’s grants and employee volunteering programs and leads the credit union’s diversity initiatives. She is a first-generation college graduate with a degree from Southwestern University and has lived in Austin for 25 years with her husband and their two teenagers.

Monica is the co-founder of The New Philanthropists, a nonprofit with a mission to increase the diversity of community leadership. She also serves on the steering committees of Central Texas Asset Funders Network, the Austin Corporate Engagement Council, and the Cornerstone DE Society. Monica’s background is in communications and marketing, having been a director at several nonprofits including the Austin Community Foundation and Austin Opera. She is also the founder and director of GivingCity Austin, a multichannel media company sold in 2020 that covered Austin’s philanthropic and civic sectors.

Kristen has been with Google for 8 years and in recruiting leadership roles for 10+ years. In her current role as Senior Program Manager, Kristen leads staffing-related programs for the sales, marketing, and corporate functions at Google. She is an active leadership and career coach and has completed her ICF certification through the Co-Active Training Institute.

Kristen spends much of her time raising her two boys (one middle and one high schooler) and supporting the causes she’s passionate about. As a first-generation college graduate, she is especially motivated by Breakthrough Central Texas’ mission and proud to serve as chairperson of the Breakthrough Honor Roll. She is an enthusiastic member of Sonic Guild (fka Black Fret) and previously served several terms on the board of the Austin Public Library Foundation.