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Andrew Rivas is the fourth Executive Director of the Texas Catholic Conference. As Executive director, Andrew represents the fifteen Bishops of Texas before the state’s governing bodies, including the legislature, the Texas delegation to the U.S. Congress, and the various state agencies. In this role he monitors issues of interest and concern to the Church, including those that affect the Church directly, and other issues relating to the Church’s teachings, such as protecting the sanctity of life at all stages of development, civil rights, and immigration reform.
Prior to his current position, Andrew spent five years as a policy advisor in the office of Social Development and World Peace at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC. Andrew advised the Bishops on federal legislation that affected Criminal Justice, Agriculture and Environmental issues. Andrew worked on important federal legislation such as the 2002 Farm Bill, The Innocence Protection Act and the Agricultural Guest Worker legislation that is part of the current comprehensive immigration debate. As the staff person advising on criminal justice issues he was part of the USCCB team that has been coordinating the Bishops’ campaign to end the use of the death penalty in the United States.
From 1999 until the end of 2001, Andrew served as an advocate on immigration, hunger and housing issues on behalf of Catholic Charities USA, the national social service arm of the Church. And, before taking that position Andrew was on staff at the United States Senate Commerce Committee, assigned to the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs. While there Andrew assisted in oversight of the Federal Trade Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
Andrew Graduated from the Columbus School of Law in 1995 and received his B.A. from UCLA in 1992.
Management Team
 Jennifer Carr-Allmon is currently serving as the Associate Director of the Texas Catholic Conference (TCC). In this role she is responsible for facilitating collaboration among the departments of the conference as well as convening the Annual Scripture Seminar and other programs. In addition, she is actively involved with the public policy and legislative activities of the conference.
Prior to this position, she served as the Advocacy Director at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston where she was responsible for directing the agency’s public policy efforts including issues such as access to healthcare immigration reform, and the needs of the poor and vulnerable. Annually since 1998 she has organized and led delegations from Texas to Capital Hill to bring the voices of the marginalized to lawmakers. Jennifer also served as the HIV/AIDS Education Coordinator at Catholic Charities for four years where she developed and implemented HIV/AIDS and chastity education programs for Catholic parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Jennifer has given presentations throughout the United States on the issues of substance abuse treatment and prevention, chastity, social justice, and advocacy. Jennifer has published numerous articles on HIV/AIDS education in a Catholic context and on various public policy and legislative issues. She earned a bachelors degree in education from University of St. Thomas in 1997 and is a Texas Certified Teacher.
 Margaret McGettrick is the Director of Education with the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department serving eighty thousand students in two hundred and seventy two Catholic schools in Texas. In this role she is responsible for the coordination and supervision of programmatic activities required by the Texas Catholic Accreditation Commission. Mrs. McGettrick works with other federal and state education and accreditation agencies which include the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Private School Acreditation Commission (TEPSAC). She maintains current knowledge of changes in federal and state programs, statutes and regulations that affect Catholic schools as well as providing assistance and support to the superintendents who serve the fifteen dioceses in Texas. In addition, Mrs. McGettrick assists with the public policy efforts related to education with particular emphasis on school choice.
Prior to this position Mrs. McGettrick served as the Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Austin for four years and as a teacher and principal in Corpus Christi for twenty seven years. In her capacity as principal during the 1980s and 1990s she was instrumental in promoting and implementing the Yearly Educational Calendar as well as gender separate education. She graduated from St. Mary’s College in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she taught for two years before immigrating to Texas where she earned a Masters Degree in School Administration.
 Susan Eason is the current director of the Catholic Archives of Texas in Austin, Texas, a position she has held since March 2002. She also serves as a consulting editor to Catholic Southwest, the journal of the Texas Catholic Historical Society, and editor of the Society’s newsletter, the Texas Catholic Historian. Ms. Eason has been at the Catholic Archives of Texas since 1996, where she was assistant archivist in charge of processing the records of Texas State Council, Knights of Columbus until assuming the duties of director. From 1992 to 1995, she worked as associate archivist for the project to process the senatorial papers of John G. Tower at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Ms. Eason holds a B.A. in Sociology from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas and a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She is active in numerous professional associations including the Texas Catholic Historical Society, the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, and the Society of Southwest Archivists.
Associates
 Marsha Solana is the Assistant Director of the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department. She is responsible for coordinating, tracking and reviewing all visits, reports and documentation required by the Accreditation Commission. Additionally she is responsible for training team members and chairpersons for school accreditation visits. Marsha has served in Catholic education as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent for thirty-eight years in the Austin diocese and the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. She earned a Masters Degree in Education at the University of Houston and Administrative Certification in the Masters program at Texas State University.
Maria Huemmer joined the Texas Catholic Conference as the Public Relations and Outreach Coordinator in August of 2007. She is responsible for reaching out to various departments and dioceses of Texas and creating communication strategies for the conference. Maria is the TCC webmaster and also designs the Texas Catholic Voice e-newsletter as well as TCC action alerts. Maria graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in May, 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Plan II Honors. To contact Maria, email Maria (AT) TxCatholic.org.
 Eric Hartmann is the Assistant Archivist of the Catholic Archives of Texas. He has worked in this position since 2002. Eric is responsible for processing the Texas State Council, Knights of Columbus records so that they are available for research or historical purposes. He also works with the Director of the Catholic Archives of Texas on other projects, such as preparing other collections for use by researchers and providing reference service. From 1999 to 2002, Eric was a librarian and cataloger at the Victoria Public Library in Victoria Texas. He also was Processing Archivist at the University of Texas San Antonio in 1998 and 1999. Eric earned a B.A. in History from Grinnell College in 1993 and a Masters of Science in Information (Archives and Records Management) from the University of Michigan in 1997.
 Carole Hatfield is our Office Manager. Carole joined the Texas Catholic Conference in 2000 working in the education department. Prior to coming to the conference, she served for many years at Austin Area Interreligious Ministries as an Administrator and as the Director of their Refugee Resettlement Program. She is also active at her parish, St. Austin, in the RCIA and on the Liturgy Commission. Carole earned her B.A. in English at Texas Christian University and is the proud mother of three sons and four grandchildren.
 Becky Sierra joined Texas Catholic Conference as the Administrative Assistant in January 2007. Prior to this position, she worked with Austin Business College in various positions in the Administration office, Advisor for the Gamma Beta Phi National Honor Society and as an Instructor. Becky earned her Associate of Applied Science in Office Technology degree from Austin Business College in 2000. She volunteers with her parish office, youth ministry, and respect life ministry and is a member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas.
 Virginia Kniesner is a part-time support librarian at the Catholic Archives of Texas. She retired in 2006 from the Austin Public Library where she had been the Assistant Manager of the Central Library and of the Austin History Center. She now volunteers at the Austin History Center and in the music archives at the Harry Ransom Center. Virginia is a member of the Society of Southwest Archivists and of the Texas Catholic Historical Society. She has a B.M. in Music from Kent State University, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Music from the Ohio State University, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a tenured music professor at Daemen College (a Catholic liberal arts college) in Amherst, New York before relocating to Austin in 1982.
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