30 Years of Texas Appleseed: Proud Moments, Favorite Memories & Tech Predictions

Texas Appleseed is celebrating our 30th anniversary this year! In honor of this milestone, we asked our staff to reflect on their favorite memories and achievements over the last 30 years. And, we take a look ahead to what tech advancements — a mix of amusing and impactful ideas — the next 30 years might bring us.

Ann, Director, Fair Financial Services Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 1999
• Something I’m proud of: When I started at Texas Appleseed, it was just me and the executive director. I am proud of how Texas Appleseed has grown over the years, both in its positive impacts for Texans and as an amazing place to work.

Martin, Senior Policy Analyst, Youth Justice Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2021
• Technology Prediction in 2056: A high-speed railway across Texas that extends to Laredo and connects all the major metropolitan hubs!!

Image

Meg, Senior Policy Analyst, Disaster Recovery & Fair Housing Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2022
• Something I’m proud of: After interviewing 20 families about their experiences for the Harris County Home Buyout Study, we invited them to a bilingual meeting to present what we heard and ask for their feedback. The result was a day of wonderful connections and conversations. I'm so grateful to those residents for taking the time to work with us and provide their expertise on how buyouts could work better for everyone.

Nathan, Director of Finance and Administration

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2020
• Technology Prediction for 2056: fully holographic displays

Natasha, Senior Staff Attorney, Criminal Justice Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2023
• Technology Prediction for 2056: I hope to see technology that is measurably improving people's lives rather than accelerating systems that already fail them. I'd like to see tech that makes access to healthcare, legal representation, and basic stability more automatic and less dependent on wealth, geography, and luck.

Brennan, Senior Deputy Director

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2010
• Technology Prediction in 2056: Assuming society doesn't collapse before then, I think nuclear fusion would provide nearly limitless energy. Everything from powering transportation to desalination to carbon capture would be economical with virtually no pollution.

Andrew, Director, Education Justice Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2019
• Something I’m proud of: I spoke about my work at Texas Appleseed at Harvard Law School in 2024.

Princess, LDF Marshall-Motley Fellow, Education Justice Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2024
• Technology Prediction for 2056: One piece of new technology that I hope to see in 30 years is a device that would allow client intake and research such that when going to see a client, a device could listen, type the narratives, and auto-populate them into the intake software. For research, I hope to see an update that would allow one to insert the topic they want to write about and all relevant sources appear in one single database for free.

Noelle, Senior Social Media Manager

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2023
• Something I’m proud of: I’m proud of how dedicated everyone at Texas Appleseed is to improving the lives of Texans, especially Ann Baddour, who recently pushed for a law to stop widowers from being charged more for insurance after their spouses passed away. Sometimes transformative changes emerge in small steps — the hours of testimony, the data compiled in reports, and meeting with stakeholders — and before you know it, positive change is being realized. That’s the work that my wonderful colleagues at Texas Appleseed do — the power of advocacy, dogged determination, and the vision to make Texas a better place.

Gabriella, Deputy Director

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2014
• Technology Prediction for 2056: Generally, I hope we take a step back and learn how to effectively use and regulate the high-powered technology we have now. Now, that does not include technological development in the medical field, mass public transportation, and food preservation/distribution.

Cole, Senior Policy Analyst, Criminal Justice Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2023
• Technology Prediction for 2056: I hope to God we will see a high-speed rail system, not only in Texas, but across the entirety of the country.

Deborah, Executive Director

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2005
• Something I’m proud of: I am so proud of the board and staff teamwork that has focused on building and sustaining this amazing organization with an eye toward the next 30 years.

Jessi, Senior Research Analyst

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2021
• Something I’m proud of: I'm proud of identifying a new project, presenting to the board, and gaining approval. I look forward to championing access to higher education!

Vivian, Individual Giving Manager

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2021
• Technology Prediction for 2056: A new tech development I'd like to see in 30 years is something like the "Rehydrator" from Spy Kids (the movie). It's like a microwave, but all you have to do is insert a color-coded food packet and press a button. The packet will then turn into a plate of food. Imagine how much time we can save!

Maile, Senior Donor Relations Officer

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2015
• Favorite Memory: One of my favorite memories was meeting the 1st cohort of Education Justice Fellows at the state capitol. Some seemed like introverted adolescents, while others were clearly confident and experienced leaders. But every single one of them had a powerful story that decision-makers needed to hear. And I was so proud of them when I heard of the brave work they did during the legislative session, and of Andrew and the Community Outreach team for gracefully centering the Fellows' voices.

Jamie Tegeler-Sauer, Director of Development

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2014
• Favorite Memory: Some of my favorite memories are from the Good Apple Dinner, our annual gala. It’s a real celebration of a shared commitment to justice, not only in the room the night of the dinner, but in the months leading up to it as we come together with our board, honorees, host committees, and sponsors to make it a success. Being part of strengthening that base of support is really rewarding because it’s a reminder that this work isn’t happening in isolation. It’s powered by a community that’s growing deeper roots every year.

John, Senior Research Analyst

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2021
• Something I’m proud of: I'm proud of the Disaster Equity Data Portal. Digesting an enormous dataset into something intelligible and useful for the broader disaster recovery community is impressive, but it's also a very beautiful website, and I'm proud of it as an aesthetic accomplishment.

Jennifer, Director, Criminal Justice Project

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2021
• Technology Prediction in 2056: I grew up watching The Jetsons, and I still haven't seen a flying car! So, that? I also hope that within the next 30 years, people will become more comfortable with what is even required to advance/develop technology; data, and our collective understanding of what it is/isn't and what it can, can't, and perhaps most importantly, shouldn't be used for. As AI becomes increasingly pervasive and normalized in our society, we may also come to truly understand the nuances and standards of practice for collecting and analyzing data.

Image

Laura R., Grants Manager

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2022
• Something I’m proud of: I'm proud that we exceeded our grant fundraising goal in 2025! Specifically, because it means that I'm supporting the incredible work of my colleagues. That means more research, more ideas, more advocacy, and more wins.

Viveca, Deputy Director, M.D. vs Abbott Monitoring Team

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2019
• Technology Prediction in 2056: Machine Learning — I only hope we can rein it in for betterment of society.

Maddie, Director, Disaster Recovery & Fair Housing

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2007
• Favorite Memory: One of my favorite memories is watching Texas Organizing Project members sign an agreement with the Mayor of Houston that would move millions of federal Hurricane Ike recovery dollars into a program to repair damaged homes and fix infrastructure in the neighborhoods hardest hit by the disaster.

Ellen, Director of Research

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2017
• Something I’m proud of: I am always so proud of all the work we do at Appleseed and the amazing, thoughtful, and rigorous work that the Research team produces. One project that comes to mind is the debt collection answer form project, where Jessi worked alongside the Fair Financial Services team to evaluate a possible answer form for courts to adopt to reduce default judgments for folks sued for a debt. Thanks to the work we produced, a judge reached out to us to pilot the answer form in his court.

Corina, Office Manager 

Image

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2018
• Favorite Memory: Celebrating birthdays and singing happy birthday with everyone present. The amazing teamwork when we have events. The kindness and support we give each other. 

Lena, Pro Bono & New Projects Director

• Year Started at Texas Appleseed: 2023
• Something I’m proud of: I'm really proud of how well staff cares for each other and genuinely honors so many different working styles. I think both demonstrate the deep respect we all have for each other and that environment of mutual respect really equips us to do the work well.