TACT Board of Directors
Seth Batiste, Ph.D
President
Batiste Consulting, LLC
Lone Star College (ret)
University of Houston & University of Salamanca (BA); University of Houston & University of the West Indies (M.Ed); Our Lady of the Lake University - SA (Ph.D.)
Member of TACT, TCCTA, AFT, AAUP
Dr. Seth Batiste was born in Houston. He attended Wheatley High School in Houston and began his education career as a bilingual teacher after receiving his bachelor’s. Dr. Batiste has taught developmental writing and ESOL for Lone Star College and staffed student success courses, retiring in 2021. In grad school, he studied second language education and leadership.
Hometown: Houston, TX
Beatriz Alvarado, Ph.D.
Vice President of Financial Affairs
Del Mar College
Stanford Univ. & University of Texas at El Paso (BA), Psychology Graduate: The University of Arizona (M.A. & Ph.D) Psychology, Public Policy, and Law
Member of TACT, TCCTA, AAUP
Dr. Beatriz Alvarado is a proud, first-generation college graduate and Texas native. She received her bachelor's degree from UTEP and her M.A. and Ph.D. in the Psychology, Public Policy, and Law program at The University of Arizona. Her research centered around justice and fairness in the U.S. legal system. While at UA, she fell in love with teaching and has devoted her career to teaching minority & first-generation students. She is currently serving as the chair of the Social Sciences department at Del Mar College where she is also an Associate Professor of Psychology.
Hometown: El Paso, TX
Teresa Klein, Ph.D.
Vice President of Legislative Affairs
Del Mar College
Oklahoma State University (Ph.D.)
Member of TACT, AAUP
Dr. Klein became involved in TACT through her membership in AAUP - the two organizations have had a strong bond for years. She enjoys working with policy and helping to educate people about the role of faculty within the institution and within society. She is especially interested in academic freedom and shared governance issues. Dr. Klein has presented at regional, national, and international conferences on these topics. In her spare time, she advocates for the health and safety of her community through several environmental organizations.
Hometown: Corpus Christi, TX
Lisa Hobson, Ph.D.
Director at Large
University of North Texas
Millsaps College (B.A.), Mississippi College (M.Ed.), University of Wisconsin - Madison (Ph.D.)
Member of TACT, AERA, The Wellbeing Project
Dr. Lisa D. Hobson currently serves as Special Assistant to the President: Partnerships and Initiatives at the University of North Texas at Dallas. She holds a Ph. D. in Educational Administration with a secondary emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. Hobson has held multiple academic administrative positions in higher education including: coordinator of field-based experiences and licensure, coordinator of an elementary education distance learning program, Specialist degree coordinator, Ph. D. program coordinator, department head, and dean.
Hometown: Jackson, MS
Pat Heintzelman
Director at Large
Lamar University
B.A. and M.A. at Lamar University
Member of TFA, AAUP, TACT, AFT
Pat Heintzelman has worked in faculty advocacy for twenty three years, representing faculty and fighting for their rights. In her role as president of the Texas Faculty Association, she has presented at regional and national conferences. She strives to educate faculty about their potential roles in shared governance. She cares deeply about academic freedom and engages often with university administrations to defend it. She enjoys legislative work and recruits others to participate. She teaches World Literature, British Literature, and Composition at Lamar University. In a prior career, Pat worked in supervision in the court system.
Hometown: Beaumont, TX
Amanda Starkey Hahn, LMSW-IPR
Director at Large
Lone Star College
Texas Christian University (B.S.) & University of Houston (MSW)
Member of TACT
Ms. Hahn owns Cross My Heart Adoption & Family Services, a licensed Child Placing Agency. Her framework for practice focuses on understanding people & programs from multiple perspectives and not projecting personal values and beliefs on others. This same ethical approach translates to the college classroom.
Ms. Hahn is an adjunct instructor at Lone Star College. She teaches courses in the Human Services program for both tracks of study, General Human Services and Substance-Abuse Counseling. Ms. Hahn is a certified college mentor.
Hometown: Marble Falls, TX
Jim Klein, Ph.D.
Immediate Past President
Del Mar College
Corpus Christi City Council
University of Iowa (B.A., M.A.), Oklahoma State University (Ph.D.)
Member of TACT, AAUP, Coastal Bend Sierra Club
Born near Ashton, Iowa, Jim Klein is a Professor of History at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in History from the University of Iowa and a PhD. in American History from Oklahoma State University. He is past president of TACT and of the Texas Conference of the AAUP, is Secretary for the DMC AAUP Chapter, and is a member of the AAUP Community College Committee and the AAUP Government Relations Committee. Jim is President of the Coastal Bend Sierra Club group and is a member of the Corpus Christi City Council.
Hometown: Corpus Christi, TX
Gary Coulton, Ph.D.
Vice President of Membership
Texas A&M University - San Antonio
Bucks County Community College (A.A.), University of New Mexico (B.A.), Trinity University (M.A.), Auburn University (Ph.D.)
Member of TACT, APA, APS, IOA, SIOP, SWPA
While earning his degree he worked part-time at a therapeutic pre-school for abused and neglected children. Dr. Coulton then earned a master’s degree in clinical psychology at Trinity University in San Antonio. While attending Trinity, he worked at a psychiatric hospital for children and at a group home for autistic children. After earning his master’s degree Dr. Coulton worked at two local psychiatric hospitals for approximately seven years before beginning work on a Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology at Auburn University. Dr. Coulton has worked with the Texas A&M University System for more than 20 years.
Hometown: New Britain, PA
Patrick Burkart, Ph.D.
Director at Large
Texas A&M University at College Station
Reed College (B.A.), McGill University (M.A.),
The University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.)
Member of TACT, AAUP
Dr. Burkart is a Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University, and author of Why Hackers Win: Power and Disruption in the Network Society, Pirate Politics: The New Information Policy Contests, Music and Cyberliberties, and Digital Music Wars: Ownership and Control of the Celestial Jukebox. Burkart was Editor in Chief of Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture from 2012 – 2022. His principal areas of research and teaching are international political economy of communication, communication and technology, and communication law and politics.
Andrew Garcia, Ed.D.
Director at Large
University of St. Thomas
University of Houston (B.A., M.A. Ed.D.)
Member of TACT, AEA
Dr. Andres Garcia is currently an assistant professor and Director of Dissertation Procedures for the Doctor of Education in Strategic/Educational Leadership program at the University of St. Thomas. For over 25 years, he has actively been engaged in the field of education throughout its various stages—from K-12 as a bilingual teacher and researcher to higher education as an adjunct professor and instructor. His predominant academic interests include program evaluation, survey research, K-12 school accountability, college and career readiness, and higher education student persistence.
Hometown: Richmond, TX
Allen Martin, Ph.D.
Director at Large
University of Texas at Tyler
Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University,
University of Texas at Austin
Member of TACT, NAS, ASA, PAA, AAG
Upon Dr. Martin’s arrival at UT Tyler, he worked with colleagues to begin work on the novel notion that minorities profit best by organizing into ethnic enclaves. This was Dr. Martin’s focus for eighteen years, presenting at the American Sociological Association annual meetings. This led fellows in the subspecialty of emigrant entrepreneurship to adopt this notion which undermined the communist committee that had attempted to stymie their research.
Dr. Martin worked diligently on a intellectual property policies, which began as articles in the TACT Bulletin and eventually led to American universities adopting the policy.
Hometown: Tyler, TX
Lynn Tatum, Ph.D.
Director at Large
Baylor University Honors College
Baylor University (B.A.), Duke University (Ph.D.)
Member of TACT, AAUP
Dr. Tatum is a long-time activist for Academic Freedom and Shared Governance. He teaches in the areas of Religion and Middle East Studies (what could be controversial about those areas). While serving as the President of Baylor’s AAUP chapter, he was terminated (“non-renewed”) by the then university president. The termination didn’t “take” and he was on the advisory committee to replace that president. Since then, he's been a zealot for academic freedom. Due to his AAUP subsequent work, he was awarded AAUP’s national award (Tacey Award) for defense of Academic Freedom. For the past several decades, he's also been honored to work with TACT.
Hometown: Waco, TX
