Episode 22 – Special episode recorded live–2019 Outstanding Alumni Awards

Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. We take you behind the scenes of policy

with the people who helped shape it. For more, visit LBJ. Don’t you, Texas?

Good evening. And thank you all for taking

the time to be with us for this wonderful awards event that we couldn’t be more excited about.

I am so grateful to call tonight’s winners fellow alumni, and I appreciate all that

they have done for public service with their career so far. I know there are even more

achievements to come for these individuals, so we’ll be keeping up with them as they continue to do great work.

I would like to introduce the dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Angela Evans. She

joined the school as a clinical professor of the practice of public policy after 40 years in public service

to the U.S. Congress and became dean in 2016. Since

then, she has been pushing the school to achieve higher national rankings, bringing on

diverse new faculty that expand the scope of policy topics. The school is known for.

And she has been working to make attending LBJ more accessible for students

who come from fewer advantages compared to typical grad students. The alumni

board is looking forward to working with her on the upcoming fiftieth anniversary events, as

well as other exciting endeavors. It is my pleasure to introduce Dean Evans.

Hi, everybody. Isn’t this great? Yeah,

this is what we all it’s just gives us so much energy. I am so, so pleased to be here. And Lauren, thank

you very much. I appreciate the introduction. And I congratulate Lauren. She

assumed this position today. So we had a switch over to.

And I also want to thank our elum, our fabulous family caelum, all of you who are in this room.

Thank you so much for the support of the school, the energy you bring to to

all of us throughout these years. And as we’re going into the fiftieth year of the school. I’ve gotten to

know more and more of you and every. It’s just amazing the spread and the depth of our

alarm. So give each other a great.

And I wonder and I want to recognize some of these extraordinary special to me and special

to the school Dean Max Sherman, there’s me.

For those of you who can’t see me sitting at this table. He’s he’s I’m telling

you, he’s a remarkable human being. He’s been. He was Dean at the LBJ school from

1983 to 1997, the longest serving dean. He’s made

careers. He’s been super, super supportive of me. He’s been a friend, a colleague, a mentor.

And he’s worked tirelessly throughout the years to continue to make this school what it is

and to bring the word of how great the school is to the outside world. He’s an amazing man

and he has been one of the biggest supporters of Miss Abrams, Stacey Abrams. He’s one of the reasons

why we have Stacey as an alarm. It’s Max. Max.

I also want to if there’s other alarm who’ve been awarded outstanding alarm, if you’re

here, can you just raise your hand? There’s more.

There we go.

Here we are. I have to tell you, it’s an honor. Today we were talking about it and

somebody asked me, you know, what do you think about the LBJ school in terms of your career? I have to say, this is the best

thing that’s ever happened to me, except for my husband, Gary, and my kids.

You know, it’s it’s really an honor to serve in this institution. It’s a place

where we believe in the power of courage. We believe in the art

of dialog. We believe in the force of an informed citizenry

and an engaged citizenry. And by God, we believe in the potential of democracy in this

school. I sometimes

I sometimes wonder, you know, I pass by the screens and here’s one Mr. Johnson behind and I often wonder

if he were here, what would he be thinking? And I think and what would he would be feeling? But on this

occasion, I think I know what he would be feeling and thinking. We have two

unbelievably wonderful individuals, Stacey Abrams and Rudy Mateja.

Did I say they’re correct? Correct. OK. I, I, I have I have been mispronouncing

his name for a long time. And I called President Johnson. This is like I found this

quote in it’s like really amazing quote. I hope that the future

public servants who begin their careers in the school will tomorrow

be serving effectively, not only in the bureaus, in departments of the federal government

and the Congress, but also in city halls, in courthouses and state capitals,

not only in Texas, but in every region of the country. Continue to quote, above

all, I hope that as they master new skills and disciplines to improve the machinery

of government, they will still build their careers of service around a dedication

to one of the most cherished principles of our democracy. The greatest

good for the greatest number. What could be better?

Of our two honorees, and they have purpose or purpose driven. They have moved

from politics to purpose. They aspire to what unites

us, not what divides us. They seek common ground by connecting to the human soul

or the essence of us as a people. They have lived the ministry

of Public Service. They have leverage, their extraordinary talent

and purpose and an influence. They reflect the better angels of us.

They reflect you are amazing LBJ community. And they reflect was best

in this United States of America. The LBJ School bestows two honors, this

deepening the twenty nineteen distinguished public service award to former Democratic nominee

for governor of the state of Georgia, Stacey Abrams.

And the Rising Leader Award to Pflugerville. And much more. City council

member and community advocate Rudy Métayer.

So let’s keep going. We will be hearing first from council member Rudy,

our little buddy here. And I’m so I’m so pleased to introduce him to you today. I met him

in my office. He came to talk to me about a problem. And from that point forward, he was brave to

come to me about a concern he had. We listened. He listened to me. And he’s just been really close to

school ever since. He’s a son of Haitian immigrants. He’s the first generation

in his family to complete higher education, earning IBSA at the University of Texas College

of Liberal Arts and executive masters and public leadership at the LBJ School and a law degree from

Texas law. As a community advocate who has spoken and worked on issues ranging from

teaching At-Risk Children coauthoring an honor code for the University

of Texas helping forge a community policing partnership with local law enforcement

in the state bar of Texas, creating pro bono legal advice

clinics for U.S. military veterans. He was also recently named an outstanding long young

lawyer of the year by the Austin Bar Association and a fellow to the Texas

Bar Foundation. He’s been recognized numerous times, is one of the most influential

young professionals, not only in the Austin area, but also in Texas. I’m telling this pretty

remarkable task because Texas and Austin’s got a lot of talent.

Rudy believes a true collaboration among stakeholders is key to keeping Pflugerville

the fiscally responsible, economically strong, inclusive and high quality of life place

as it is today. He’s married to an amazing wife. Well, Tisha.

And is the deal to three beautiful daughters, Celeste Reelin and Brooklyn,

a couple down here and. And

Rudy is a remarkable young man with a beautiful soul,

a giving heart and an infectious smile. I’m proud of the legacy he has already

built in the forward to the decades ahead. When, Rudy, you’re going to be making a lot of people very,

very happy and very comfortable in this country. So thank you very much. Please join me in welcoming

Rudy.

Are you kidding me? So do we have to take a. We have to do the ceremony.

You all.

Thank you, take. Always.

That is your Travis County judge right there. Thank

you, Judge. Wow.

Someone’s ringing.

I can start by saying this. It feels really good to be home.

What’s amazing about tonight is that I can literally look out in the crowd and see people

who have touched my life. Not only was born

in Brooklyn, New York, by Janene MTA,

but people who have looked out for me. Literally, since I stepped

foot on the 40 acres like Marla Bird over here, Brenda Bird

Hocking, you know, can’t believe that. You know, you have. You have friends for life and you have someone who’s

known you since six years old, Brian Sachar, who comes into town just for a specific van to go and say, I

love you for that brother. And it really does

humble you and makes you think back about where you’ve been and what you’ve done and what you want

to do in here. The biggest thing I’d say this is that the University of Texas

is so unique because it really does give you a cross-section

of folks in the state to come together, learn from each other, collaborate

and truly get to be the best person that you can be. It gives you

that opportunity. Now, make no mistake, you know, as a recent Atlantic

article that came out earlier today talked about, there is a dark

history here regarding bigotry and racism and, you know,

the allowance, this allowance African-American students on here and

the bravery that folks like the precursors came on campus

to make sure that I would be able to have a place here, I would be able to make a discernible difference and I’d be able

to matriculate and be the best that I can be. Couple that with the Hopwood decision,

and you’re thinking about the top 10 percent and you think about ways and avenues that continuously the University

of Texas has struggled to make sure that this university is

not just a university of certain segments of society, but all of society in general.

That legacy, that heart, that understanding, that commitment.

It gets you excited. It makes you proud. And it makes

you want to make sure that you have the same thing happen for the generations to come.

I feel blessed. I feel completely blessed. You know, I feel that,

you know, you have a plan in life, you have an idea of what you want to do,

and then God really gets you prepared for what’s going to happen to you and work from that. You know?

You know, going back to I better get back on what the remarks were excuse me, sort of go and offer offered and some of these

things. I do want to go ahead and say thanks because

my parents this is the first time you’ve ever been at an event where I ever received an award. And it

makes a big difference for you to fly in and be.

I can’t tell you how big of a difference it had in my life, having a strong

Republican mother and a strong Democratic father.

I could imagine the kitchen debates and everything else that goes on from that as well.

But it allowed for me to have a perspective that,

you know, sadly, I don’t think we do enough in this country right before I came over here. I got to speak to

a group of about 60 young people, young professionals, who are going to a program called Leadership

Austin, where, in fact, they’re going to dove into a lot of the main issues that are happening in the region and trying to find their

own path and try to see what they can see with that. And one of the things I made

a point to them to know and realize is that take the opportunity to get to know

one another, take the opportunity to go ahead and understand those different viewpoints and ideas

and goals. Because in life, we don’t do that enough anymore. We don’t

take the opportunity to go ahead and truly understand what another person’s trying to say.

We don’t truly try to understand that perspective. When someone is telling you their viewpoint,

that’s their truth. That’s the life that they lived. And so if you have something

that buttresses against that, of course, they’re going to be shocked and say, wait a minute, this is

the life I live. You can’t tell me I’m wrong here. I live this life. And

so if you’re telling me the alternative that blows everything that I’ve had to learn from that.

And we really, truly need to try to understand and reach out to those viewpoints

and understand those goals. Incorporate doesn’t mean that you have to agree, doesn’t mean know about that. But

you have to understand and not just sympathize, but empathize. And that’s what makes, you know,

places like the LBJ school so vital in our society, so important to

have that opportunity to have those kind of discussions. Because guess what? When you

matriculate mean when you leave here, those discussions, those ideas, they’re not going anywhere. They’re still

the same debates and goals and concepts that we’re gonna have out there in society. And it’s important for you to

be able to be engaged and equipped to go ahead and deal with those things, to not just be

quick to cast aspersions, but to make sure that you’re talking to folks and understanding manner in

a manner that can go hand relate with one another. And, you know, when you do things

like that, good things happen to you. Here’s a perfect example.

A couple of years ago, the wonderful Lucy Baines Johnson

decided that she would have a couple of up and rising leaders in the ice area

over her house, just conversations. She wanted to see what was going on, see what her viewpoints are. You know,

the everything up is system with that. She had planned that about a month ahead, her cell, we really excited

as we get to go over there. Lucy Baines Johnson. I just see what happens from there.

And then Charlottesville’s happens.

And we went to her house the Tuesday following the.

And I can’t say enough about her car orthotic,

that was how embracing it was, how emotional it was to be able to sit

there and just talk about what we had seen, what was going on

in our country. And they think, wait a minute. Have things

always been this way? Are they just out in the open right now? Do people

agree with these thoughts and ideas? What are we going to do about that? And at that

moment and that concept, that idea was pivotal to so many of us

to build, to just have that bond, to have you speak to us and truly understand that and made a difference

to us. He actually launched several political careers after that,

including myself. I’ve run for office myself.

Everything that we do in life, we have people out there who are supporters, cheerleaders, people

are truly embracing to see you succeed. I’ve been lucky because

it hasn’t just been my wonderful parents. It’s been people like

Commissioner Trevillian working out for me like a big brother. Pastor Parker, Joseph

Parker. You know, you I still remember the first time Bill Powers told

me. Do you know Pastor Parker? I said, what does Pastor have to do anything with law? I was like, wait. I mean, I’m very

confused about here to gantlet and how you just changed my life. Your policies and goals with

that aspect. Jeremy, I wouldn’t

be here right now if not for you. Barry Bailes and Craig Paterson.

You told me. Yes, you have a law degree, Rudy, but you know what?

You’re destined for bigger things. You’re gonna be in the policy realm. You need to go

ahead and understand these concepts. Ideas be embraced in goals and that they’re. And this is the place to do that.

And you’re right. At least once,

my wife, Leticia, my rock.

You allow for me to be the best version of me that I can be. And there’s nothing

in this world I could have done without your support.

Sweetie.

Mama, Burt, you watched out for us on campus here

when the L you know, when you have the statues, get an aid.

We had people defacing MLK. We had the blackface parties, the

fliers on campus saying don’t date black men. They’ll give you AIDS. You were there for

us. He created a space over there. DDC. And you made

a difference for us. I can’t thank you enough for your support

and your guidance. And we really are truly your children, and I hope we make you proud, your legacy

here at the University of Texas.

Well, nothing I said was written. But

I do want to wrap up in closing to say this. It feels really

strange to sit up here and talk about things that you’re accomplished when you’re really trying to

think about how you truly can make a difference in this world and what more you can do.

And I’d say that to each and every one of you

look to what aspects and goals you truly want. Look at what values that

you encourage. Talk to people that are different from yourselves. Try to truly understand

what the significance that comes from that. They just came out. A new documentary from the great

Ken Burns on country music. And one of the best quotes that came from

him from that is that, yes, each of us belong to an ethnic group.

But we also belong to one specific group, the human race. And we need to

get back to that. Now, back to those goals and concepts and what the vibrancy and the people that

I see here at this school. I know they’re going to make that happen.

And that’s the legacy this man has left for us to go and encompass over here with that.

Thank you. God bless. Always welcome.

Thank you, Rudy. Soon, we’ll hear from Stacey Abrams. But first,

let me share with you some of her accomplishments. I mean, I think you all have been following this amazing

young woman during an interview. She was the after she saw her nomination

at the time as the Democratic candidate for governor of the state of Georgia. Is history making

how she responded to their question really defined Stacy and the force

she brings to the American political arena. She said, quote, It is not

just history for me. It is changing the face of what leadership looks like

in America. And I’m excited to be part of the vanguard and quote,

indeed, not only is she part of the vanguard, she’s one of its leaders.

But Stevens was the first black woman in the United States history, become a gubernatorial nominee

for a major party, and she won more votes.

I mean, think about that. That’s profound. She won more votes

than any other Democrat in Georgia’s history.

She served eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, including seven

is minority leader. Again, a vote of confidence.

And in twenty nineteen, she became the first black woman to deliver

the Democratic response to the State of the Union address.

Following her gubernatorial campaign, Miss Abrams has been focusing her efforts on preventing

voter voter suppression by founding Fair Fight.

An organization dedicated to election reform. Today, we were talking about being in the arena.

The Teddy Roosevelt 1910 speech that he wrote, it’s like 18 pages of speech. He has one paragraph

in there that talks about being in the arena and he says, you get in that arena, it matters.

You get bloodied, you get you fall down and you get back up. And everybody who doesn’t

go into the arena has no right to say anything. She epitomizes that.

Stacy has founded multiple organizations devoted to protecting voter rights, training and hiring

young people of color and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels.

She has including She’s Got Fair Count, a nonprofit whose aim is to ensure that the 2020

census is fair and accurate people to understand how important that is.

Her tireless in her fearless work to secure and defend voting rights

has energized our nation and our politics. You need a person who epitomizes

what we need to be doing. And she’s it. Please join me in welcoming

Stacey Abrams.

I’m gonna give this to you because it is going to fall at some. Likely on

my foot and they’ll say something inappropriate in this whole thing will be done

to Dean. Angela Evans, who I may hire to be my PR person

to Dean. Max Sherman, who let me in and let me out.

Lucy Baines Johnson, who flew down to Georgia to remind all of us of the legacy

of her father, but most importantly, of the possibility of our nation. Thank you.

And to my co wardi, Mayor Rudy, I’m sorry I’m promoting you.

Council member already met here. So

my little placard over there says on the class of ninety eight.

And there’s a story behind it because I actually got here in ninety five. I came

to the LBJ school having attended Spelman College where I went. Thank

you, Spelman. For those who don’t know, is a black women’s college in

Georgia, in Atlanta. It’s an amazing school. And there I was pretty cool. I

got stuff done. I was present student body. I was a big fish in a small pond.

And I decided to swim a little upstream and applied for a fellowship that

no one in the history of my school had ever won, that no black woman in the history of my state

had ever won. But everyone told me, if you apply for it, if you work at it, if you can get through Mississippi,

which is my home state, you can win. And after a lot of soul searching

and prayer, I believe them. I applied and I won in Mississippi. I became

the Mississippi nominee for the Rhodes Scholarship and.

Did not have a happy ending because, you see, I believe that

when they told me all you had to do was overcome this major hurdle, if you overcame this hurdle,

the rest would be easy. Only I’d forgotten that racism and sexism don’t

have a timeline and they don’t have a geography. And for various reasons, I did

not become a Rhodes Scholar. My approach to life, having been raised by

Robert and Carolyn Abram’s, was when you faced adversity and you were not successful.

Your first responsibility is to look inside. What could you have done differently? Could you have been better?

Did you make a mistake? And my answer to all those things, I could have been better. I didn’t make

a mistake. I should just kept myself where I was. And so when I was applying

to graduate schools during the process of the Rhodes Scholarship, I applied to seven

law schools and six grad schools. I also like to lay my odds out pretty far.

I only pick top schools, but I looked at geography. I looked at ranking. I looked at whether

because I’m from the South and I looked at Ivy League schools

because having gone to Spelman, the Ivy League was what I was told to try for. And I was admitted

to Harvard University, to the law school and to the graduate program, to the University of Chicago,

to the University of Texas, to a number of schools. But after losing

the roads, I decided that I was probably not equipped for these larger

opportunities. And despite my admission letters, despite their financial aid,

I wanted to figure out what was the safest place I could go to, where I could challenge myself but not challenge

myself too much. Where could I work towards a degree I wanted, but not worry

about failing in public. And I wanted to be warm because I hate

the North. And so I chose the University of Texas. I chose

the LBJ School and the University of Texas Law School. You see, I had made the misconception

that because it wasn’t Harvard that it would be easier. My God, was I wrong?

I decided that it was going to be a safe space for me to just coast, that

I wasn’t going to have to challenge myself as much. And that if I failed, if I stumbled, they wouldn’t notice

here. And so I came to the LBJ school and I

met Dean Sherman. I met Bob Wilson, who made me his research assistant.

I met Ellsworth’s Brastow. Yeah, exactly.

Who once told me with great, great patrician air that she had that

I was capable of greatness. If only I would bother to show up.

Yes, I listened to Jamie Galbraith explain

economics in a way that actually made sense and completely confused me.

But at the same time, I was wondering about the decision I’d made being at the LBJ

school exposed me to ideas and opportunities I’d never imagined. It challenged me

to think differently about policy and about the work I wanted to do. It charged me up

because of its legacy and its namesake. That my responsibility was larger than any ignominy

I may face and that the work that was begun by the Great Society remained

to be done. Because during the first of my days here, Barbara Jordan was down

the hall, shouldn’t let first year in her classroom, but she was down the hall.

But at the same time, I had a dear friend who was the secretary of a fellowship

that I’d won in college, the Truman Scholarship, and his name was

Lewis Blair. He was dear friends with Max Sherman. Mr. Blair called me on this

and he said, Stacie, why are you at the University of Texas? And he said, if you’re there, because that is

where you want to be good. But if you’re there because you’re afraid, I’m ashamed

of you. And I’m disappointed. Now, by that point, I could admit that I was at the LBJ

school because it was the place for me, because it challenged my ideas, but it gave me space

to try things that sometimes you need a little safety in your challenge. Sometimes you need

a little bit of a haven to press and test yourself. But at the

same time, the Hopwood decision came down and I went from being one of 100 black

students at the University of Texas Law School to being one of eight. And if I figured if I was gonna be one of eight

black people, I might as well do that at Yale. And so.

I I applied to the Yale Law School.

I didn’t think they would let me in. So I wrote this weird essay and I filled out my paperwork

and sent it off. And I mentioned in passing to the administration that I’d made this application

because there had never been a student who went to the University of Texas LBJ School and

went somewhere else for law school out to out-of-state. Everyone knew I was doing it.

And as Lee Bosk reminded me the day I got in, I may have Kirst and I was

very excited. I used an expletive and suggested it was odd that they let me

in. But I was going to go. And then the hammer came down.

I was told that I was not permitted to complete my degree if I left Texas.

That because of the rules of the state, because of the number of hours I would have to

receive while at the LBJ school, that I would have to either for forfeit this

degree here or forfeit the opportunity to go to Yale. Now, I come from a

family that my mother likes to call the genteel poor. We had no money, but we watched PBS and

we read books and the opportunity

to be the first in my family to go to law school, to be the first in my family, to go to Yale

Law School was not lost on me. The fact that the Hopwood decision

had in the state of Texas diminished the possibilities for so many

made me angry about that law school and maybe burn to show them.

And so I decided to go to Yale. But by the time I was doing that, I had a problem.

I was in love with the LBJ school. I was in love with professors

who saw their students not as charges, but as opportunities for greatness.

I was in love with a place that believed that the work of the Great Society could be made whole and made manifest

in their lifetime. I was surrounded by people who didn’t like each other all the time

and were not ashamed of saying so, but who did so with respect and with credibility

and with numbers and with a deep admiration for the possibility.

And I did not want to lose the opportunity to say that I was a graduate of the LBJ

School. But part of growing up is you have to make tough choices. And I chose to go to

Yale. I said goodbye to Dean Sherman, who had appointed me to committees, who explained to

Dean Ross Douthat, I wasn’t as shiftless as I seemed,

who believed in my possibility, encouraged me to take that opportunity.

And so I left the environs of Austin and went to that Cold Hill that is New Haven.

And I began my time there. And a few months into

my second year, a letter appeared

and it was it was a FedEx. And I opened this letter and it was

from Max Sherman. And in it, he told me that he was going to be retiring

from the LBJ school in 1997. And he said, if you can get

your stuff done, if you can write a thesis and if you could arrange to take these two courses,

I will make certain that you receive a degree from the LBJ school.

And so with the help of Bob Wilson and Pat Wong, I wrote a thesis

on the operational dissonance of the unrelated business income tax exemption, and I’m certain only Pat

Long read. I took a stat’s

course at Yale. It was really hard. I took the courses

I needed to take and I submitted my information and I became a graduate of the LBJ

School in 1998.

And what I owe to Dean Sherman, what I owe to the seat of the school is more than my

gratitude for this degree. What I owe is a sense of purpose

that allowed me to stand for office. And once again, not succeed.

You see, I tested myself with the roads and not quite made it. I tested myself

here at the LBJ school. I tested myself again and again. And what I learned

again and again is that what we are called to do is not to be the victors.

We are called to be the valiant. We are called to be the ones who will try again and

again knowing that success is not guaranteed, but knowing that the requirement is that we fight any

way that, yes, I am not the governor of Texas or of Georgia.

I’m only going to try for one, maybe again. But I know that

the legacy created by Lyndon Baines Johnson. A complicated legacy

that believed in grace and evolution and redemption, that believed in the perfection

of humanity, if not the perfection of the human, that believed in

the possibility of now and the promise of tomorrow that lives

here in the space that when I did not become governor,

my job was not to wallow or to weep. My job was not to do the dance

of concession that says that everything was okay. My job was to do what LBJ said

we do and that is call out wrong and demand right and fight for justice.

And I stand here before you looking at a quote that says, if the society today

allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval

of the majority and voter suppression does not have the approval of the majority because the majority has been

silent.

And whether it is the words of Barbara Jordan or the namesake of Lyndon

Baines Johnson, we are all inheritors of an extraordinary and remarkable covenant,

and that is that each day when we ply our trade, whether we are in the bureaucracy

or in the political space, whether we’ve escaped altogether and gone to academia,

that our responsibility remains core and unchallenged.

And that is that we do right, that we fight for justice

and that we serve humanity. I paraphrase Lyndon Johnson because he shouldn’t just said, man,

but I quote his ethic and his ethos when I say that this is a college

and I mean small C college, a place of learning, a place of erudition,

but also a place of grace that will lead us all forward. And I thank you for having me on.

That was incredible. Thank you all so much for being with us tonight. I hope you

are as inspired by Miss Abrams and Mr. Mateja as I am.

That was just so wonderful. Be sure to stay in touch through alumni fire and

the LBJ events page at LBJ, your Texas to do flash

events. And we hope to see everyone at the tailgate here in the breezeway tomorrow

at two 30. You can find the details and purchase tickets ahead of time on the

LBJ Great Tailgate Society Facebook page. And for those who aren’t going to the game,

will have an official alumni watch party at Haymaker immediately following the tailgate.

So just want to thank you again and get home safely. This was a wonderful evening and we’re so

grateful to share it with everybody.

This is policy on purpose. A podcast produced by the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University

of Texas at Austin. We take you behind the scenes of policy with the people who help shape

it. To learn more, visit LBJ, you, Texas daddy to you and follow

us on Twitter or Facebook at the LBJ School. Thank you for

listening.