Tara is a former educator and reading specialist. She has developed a nationally recognized service learning curriculum connecting middle school students as mentors and providing opportunities for them to engage with young readers. Tara believes in the power of understanding or own stories and loves to read about other’s stories. Tara and her husband enjoy spending time with their children, weather it is supporting their son while he performed in the Lion King Broadway tour, attending football games with their younger son at the University of Georgia, or watching their daughter perform Opera at Drake University.
Category: TBF Board of Advisors
TBF Board of Advisors members
Andrea Rado Hamilton
Andrea Rado Hamilton was raised in a real estate family and has been in the industry for over twenty years. She is a Global Real Estate Expert with Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty. In addition to helping clients buy, sell and lease residential real estate, Andrea has worked in a variety of capacities within the industry, from building high density urban homes, to selling small investment properties, to raising private equity for limited partnerships. A native Austinite, Andrea is passionate about the local community! She has chaired galas and fun runs for Rodeo Austin, The Texas Film Awards, and the Ronald McDonald House and is currently serving as a board member for the Dell Children’s Trust. In the past, Andrea has also volunteered for the Urban Land Institute, St. Austin’s Catholic School, I Live Here, I Give Here, and the Real Estate Council of Austin. She and her husband Chase have one daughter, Juliet, a son, David, and their dog Bodhi, adopted during the covid quarantine from Lucky Lab Rescue. They love exploring Austin’s culinary scene (and then burning off the calories with long walks on our extensive trail systems). Even though Community Service remains a family priority, she finds herself volunteering often to coach youth sports and can be found on the kickball fields or the volleyball courts most days after school.
Jinelle Lawson
Jinelle Lawson enjoys reading and is involved in multiple book clubs in her community. She volunteers at her children’s school for different book-related activities and is a regular volunteer at the Austin Nature and Science Center. She is also a member of the Junior League of Austin. In her free time, besides reading she likes to hike, spend time with her husband and two children and play pickleball.
Adriana Pacheco
Adriana Pacheco, PhD, is the founder and producer of the Hablemos Escritoras Podcast, along with its companion website, hablemosescritoras.org, and the online bookstore, Shop Escritoras. She holds a PhD in Iberian and Latin American Literatures and Cultures. Currently, she serves as an Affiliate Research Fellow at the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and as member and previous chair of the International Board of Advisors at the University of Texas Austin. Among other associations, she is an active member of the Pan American Round Table of Texas in Austin. In 2012, she was recognized as a Featured Author at the Texas Book Festival. Her academic work and book reviews have been published in reputable literary magazines worldwide. She has also edited various critical books and documentaries, aiming to promote literacy and showcase the accomplishments of Iberian, Latin American and Hispanic-heritage women writers from around the world. Born in Puebla, Mexico, Adriana Pacheco, she is a naturalized American citizen.
Hopeton Hay
Based in Pflugerville, he has over 25 years of experience producing and hosting talk shows for
noncommercial radio. He is the founder, host, and producer of Diverse Voices Book Review (formerly
known as KAZI Book Review), a podcast featuring interviews with authors of recently published fiction
and nonfiction. It also airs weekly on KAZI 88.7 FM. He is the co-editor of Austin Noir (May 2023), a
short story collection featuring writers providing a kaleidoscopic view of the city—not just in where they
set the stories, but in their different social, economic, and cultural perspectives.
He is also the founder and producer of the Celebration of Diverse Literary Voices of Texas, an annual
event bringing together writers discussing fiction, nonfiction, and contemporary issues centered on people
of color.
Helen Watkins
Helen began her career as an equity trader in Houston, then Dallas, for two banks and various hedge funds in Texas. After moving to Austin in 1996, she has remained involved in the Junior League and then joined the Helping Hand Home as a volunteer. She served on, and then chaired, the Grant Committee for the Women’s Fund with the Austin Community Foundation for many years. Her children attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin where she served as President of the Parents’ Association and then on the Board of Trustees. Helen then went to work, helping to establish I Live Here, I Give Here as the Non-Profit Coordinator. She has recently retired after 10+ years on the Board of Advisors with Literacy First, also serving as the Board Chair. She remains involved with many non-profits in Austin, as well as chairing the Community Outreach board with HSW Investment.
Roosevelt Weeks
Roosevelt Weeks is the Director of the Austin Public Library where he leads a dynamic team and library system. His responsibility includes 20 branch locations, the History Center and a Central Library, listed by Time Magazine as one of the World’s Greatest Places in 2018. Weeks joined the Austin Public Library team in 2017 and previously worked at the Houston Public Library, Pasadena Public Library, Accenture and Aetna.
Weeks is passionate about improving technology, literacy and education, both inside and outside of the library. He also works directly with community leaders to agree upon shared values, vision, and measures of success. This furthers the combined goal of ensuring a future workforce capable of the complex critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in an ever-changing competitive environment.
In addition, Weeks is a member and serves on several committees within the American Library Association (ALA), Public Library Association (PLA), Texas Library Association (TLA), Urban Library Council (ULC), National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA), University of Texas Libraries System, as well as currently serving on the Executive Boards for both TLA and ULC. Weeks received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Texas Southern University and his Master of Library Science degree from the University of North Texas. In his spare time, Weeks enjoys time with family, serving in his church and helping the community.
Teresa Oppedal
Teresa Oppedal enjoyed a twenty-year career as a law librarian and legal information services manager at Morrison & Foerster, a large international law firm in San Francisco. Since retiring and moving to Austin in 2000, she has volunteered for many local non-profits including serving as Board President of the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation, on the advisory board of the Austin Museum of Art, on the grants committee of the Austin Community Foundation’s Women’s Fund, and as Advisory Council Chair of Literacy First. Most recently she built a small business, having developed a bug bite deterring mesh jumpsuit. Her primary interests remain promoting literacy and the free dissemination of information to all.