Carlos Y. Benavides IV is a Texas attorney working in the city of Austin at Ikard Law PC, where he represents clients in matters related to fiduciary law. Carlos received a BA in English from Marymount University and a JD from St. Mary’s University School of Law. He began his legal career in Hidalgo County, Texas as a state prosecutor for the first Domestic Violence Specialty Court in South Texas to rehabilitate domestic violence offenders, reduce potential recidivism and improve upon victim safety. Carlos has served on the non-profit Texas Council on Family Violence’s Prosecutor Leadership Core and went on to help establish and serve as the first labor trafficking specialty state prosecutor in the State of Texas. In 2019, Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed Carlos to serve a six-year term on the Specialty Courts Advisory Council as a gubernatorial appointee. As a member of the advisory council, Carlos evaluates applications from specialty courts across the state for grant funding from the Governor’s Office and makes recommendations to the office’s criminal justice division regarding best practices for these courts.
Category: TBF Board of Directors
TBF Board of Directors members
Dalton Young
Dalton Young is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Rank & Style (rankandstyle.com), a lifestyle media site that features data-driven “Top 10” lists promoting best-of products in women’s fashion, beauty, men’s clothing, skincare, kids and home categories. She joined Rank & Style from the legal industry where she previously practiced as an attorney and was the president of a technical and data-driven legal support company. Dalton is passionate about contributing to the Austin community and spearheaded the creation of Hartford Park, a new pocket park in central Austin, through a unique public-private partnership with the City of Austin. In 2020, she co-chaired The Texas Book Festival Virtual Gala and is a former member of the Elizabeth Ann Seton Board. Dalton received her undergraduate degree in English literature from Washington and Lee University and her law degree from The University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Austin with her husband, Victor, and their sons Philip and Elliot.
Andrea Valdez
Andrea Valdez is the managing editor of The Atlantic. Previously she served as editor in chief of the Texas Observer, editor of WIRED.com, and editor of Texas Monthly’s website. A native Houstonian, she wrote the book “How to be a Texan: The Manual.” She is also a board member of the Student Press Law Center.
Anna Loewenbaum Hargrove
Anna Loewenbaum Hargrove co-chaired the Texas Book Festival Virtual Gala last year and currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Good Shepherd Episcopal School, the Seton Development Board and the UNC Lineberger Board of Visitors. Anna previously served on the Elizabeth Ann Seton Board. Originally from New Orleans, she received her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her masters in Special Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Anna previously taught kindergarten in New York and first grade at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin. She currently lives in Austin with her three boys and her husband Reg.
Grant Loveless
Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Grant E. Loveless is an AfroQueer award-winning student, social entrepreneur and community strategist in Central Texas. They are currently a student at Austin Community College majoring in Psychology seeking to pursue a career within Journalism and Public Policy. After graduation, Loveless hopes to serve their community as a liaison to youth and their academic or professional needs. Currently, as a spoken-word poet and well-recognized public speaker, they focus on creating dialogues centering: social and economic equity, cultural preservation and representation, youth empowerment and success as well as creative activism / storytelling.
Katherine Wright
Katherine Wright is a real estate advisor at Moreland Properties, a global luxury residential and commercial real estate company, and the Executive Director of the Wright Family Foundation’s Austin office. Born and raised in Baltimore, Katherine studied photography and lighting design at Bennington College in Vermont and worked in community relations at MBNA Bank and as a real estate agent in Wilmington, Delaware, before moving to Austin. A twenty-year citizen of Austin who is passionate about education and improving the lives of underserved young people, Katherine serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Book Festival, the Austin Theatre Alliance (the Paramount and State Theatres on Congress), the Leadership Committee for the Texas Education Grantmakers Advocacy Consortium, and is a former board member of KIPP Austin Public Schools. A multiple marathon runner, snowboarder, and hiker, Katherine has been an avid world traveler her entire life. She is married to Will Burdick, an urban planner, and has three children, Hannah, James, and Lucy.
Leslie Wingo
Leslie Wingo is President and CEO of Sanders\Wingo Advertising, a 90-person firm that is headquartered in El Paso with offices in Austin and New York.
A native of El Paso, Wingo earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from The University of Texas at El Paso. She moved to Austin in 2000 and has worked her way up in the family-owned business. She joined the agency in 1995 and was named agency Partner in 2001. She has led numerous accounts over the years, including the US Postal Service, Burger King and State Farm. More recently she has been responsible for the agency’s strategic vision and day-to-day operations.
In 2011 Wingo was awarded the Austin Advertising Federation’s Silver Medal for Excellence for her commitment to social welfare. The following year, she was named one of the “Top Women Executives in Advertising & Marketing” in Black Enterprise magazine’s Women of Power issue. In 2013, the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce named Sanders\Wingo “Small Business of the Year” and in 2014, Wingo won the Austin Business Journal’s 2014 Women of Influence Award.
She was previously the board chair of AIDS Services of Austin and has served as director and committee chair on several boards, including the Austin Advertising Federation, the American Heart Association of Texas, the American Lung Association, and The Contemporary Austin.
In 2014 Wingo graduated from Leadership Austin’s Essential Class and credits that experience with teaching her critical lessons that she immediately implemented into her personal and professional life.
Ravi Vemulapalli
Ravi Vemulapalli has more than 24 years of management and executive-level experience in corporations such as GE, Kidde fire Safety and United Technologies. Vemulapalli is a senior director of logistics operations at Applied Materials. Most recently, Vemulapalli was the co-owner of Veteran Supply Services, a local solar contractor for homes and businesses and also general contractor for apartments and commercial businesses. Before that, Vemulapalli was the general manager of Enflite, a wholly-owned subsidiary of LifePort, a Sikorsky Company before it went private and is what brought him to Texas. Prior to his career as a civilian Ravi was history major at Annapolis in the naval academy and served in various roles as a naval officer. Positions included operational test and evaluation pilot, naval aviator flying H-60 Seahawks, and public affairs officer. Vemulapalli holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Duke University and a BS from the United States Naval Academy.
Michele Moore
Michele Moore founded the Dell Corporate Communications department in 1989, which grew to encompass worldwide investor and public relations; executive and employee communications; civic sponsorships; and the Dell Foundation. In 1991, she was promoted to vice president, becoming the first female executive at Dell. In positions at previous companies, Michele directed various aspects of communications for pharmaceutical, steel and diversified industrial corporations. Michele and her late husband, Brad, have been longtime supporters of the Texas Book Festival and the Reading Rock Stars program; endowed The Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series through the University of Texas Press; and with the Library Foundation, established the Brad Moore Collections Endowment for the Central Library downtown. Michele is currently a member of the University of Texas Press Advisory Board. She has served on the boards of the American Cancer Society; People’s Community Clinic; and Austin Planned Parenthood, and was a founding board member of the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders. Michele received her bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford.
Jennifer Wilks
Jennifer Wilks is an associate professor of English & African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also serves as Associate Director of the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies. Her current book project is a cultural history of Carmen with a focus on adaptations set in African diasporic contexts. Also an award-winning teacher, Wilks is a member of the inaugural Texas 10, the Texas Exes’ annual recognition of top UT Austin professors, and a recipient of the Harry Ransom Award for Teaching Excellence and the Thomas Cable Upper-Division Teaching Award. As part of her commitment to encouraging a love of literature and learning outside of the classroom as well as within, Wilks has moderated discussions or participated in events with the Austin Public Library and UT Humanities Institute, Del Valle High School, Texas Book Festival, Austin Public Library Foundation, Austin Playhouse, Austin African American Book Festival, Austin Film Society, and the Writers’ League of Texas. Wilks is a past board member of ProArts Collective and the Texas Wesley Foundation, the former Southwest chair of Bryn Mawr College’s Alumnae Regional Scholars Committee, and a former member of the City of Austin’s African American Resource Advisory Commission.