Our Executive Team

Donna Beth was raised in West Texas but Austin has been home for the majority of her adult life. After graduating from The University of Texas with a B.A. in Speech, she worked in administrative positions for The University of Texas at Austin, M.D. Anderson Hospital and The University of Texas at Dallas. After retiring from that institution, she was Assistant to the President at Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) in Austin. One more retirement took her to Washington, DC to work on education issues and work for Clinton/Gore ‘96. Moving back to Austin and working the Texas campaign for 1996, the Democratic Party called again, after yet another retirement, and from 1997-99, 2001-2004, she was on the staff of the Texas Democratic Party. In 2005 and 2006 she was the Texas Democratic State Convention Coordinator, as a volunteer. She is currently a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee and the first woman to be named Sergeant at Arms. She is a member and an officer of several Democratic clubs in Texas, including being a past Board Member, Treasurer and President-Elect for the Texas Democratic Women and a 2003 winner of the Capital Area Democratic Women ‘Celebration of Champions’ Award. She was the 2013 President of Texas Democratic Women. In 2014 she was honored to be the recipient of the Texas Democratic Woman of the Year. She did advance for the Clinton White House when the Vice-President and First Lady traveled in Texas. During the 2000 campaign she advanced for Tipper Gore and Sen. Lieberman and was the Texas contact for the campaign. In 2007 she received the second Mack Kidd True Blue Democrat Award from the Travis County Democratic Party, the 2010 Kick Ass Democrat Award from the Capitol Area Progressive Democrats and continues to be involved in committees, elections, and as a precinct chair and was the Finance Chair of the Travis County Democratic Party.

In the non-partisan realm of her life, she has been Treasurer, Secretary, Newsletter Chairman, Chair-elect, Chair and Immediate Past Chair and Advisor of the Docents of the Governor’s Mansion, receiving the Docent of the Year Award in 2000, and a Docent at the LBJ Library and Museum, and a volunteer at the Texas History Museum. In 2007, she was elected to the Board of the Allandale Neighborhood Association and served as President for two terms. She served for seven years on the Austin State Hospital Volunteer Council in various offices, including as Chair. She is a member of the Thankful Hubbard Chapter of the DAR, having been American Heritage Committee Chair, Historical Preservation Chair, and American Spirit Magazine Chair and active in her church St. John’s United Methodist . She was appointed for a second term by the Austin City Council to the Ethics Review Commission for the City of Austin.

Besides her love of politics is her love of The Longhorn Band. As one of the original 12 girls in the Longhorn Band and a charter member of Beta Gamma chapter, Tau Beta Sigma, Donna Beth is a founding member of the Longhorn Alumni Band and has held several offices in that organization, being the first woman Vice-President. She served as Chair of the Board of Directors. She was the 2006-2007 President, has served as Chair of the Board of Directors, and President of the Board of Trustees which manages the scholarship funds in excess of one million dollars and is an officer of the Board of the Longhorn Band Foundation.

In her retirement her political, community, and social activities keep her busy. As does her surrogate family of children (4 and 5 grandchildren) and friends of more than 50 years and the animals, including currently one cat inside, and one outside, the others have gone to the Rainbow Bridge and are in kitty heaven – all 18 of them.