Welcome our new board members

By
Bayou City Waterkeeper
Category
Date
April 29, 2022
 
Bayou City Waterkeeper welcomes new members to our Board of Directors. We are excited to bring new perspectives to our board in urban planning, education, law, public health, environmental justice, wetland ecosystems, fundraising, and nonprofit management. Read more about our new board members below. 
 

 

Hugo Colón is a Houston-based Landscape Designer and Community Planner interested in the interaction between urban environments, people, and water. His prior experience working with communities in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexican border allowed him to witness the inequities communities face towards different infrastructure and community development issues related to transportation, stormwater management, open spaces for community gathering, and other public services. He is passionate about inclusive design practices and working with local communities in co-developing strategies that address these issues. As a Senior Landscape Designer at Asakura Robinson, Hugo manages multiple park, infrastructure, and planning projects that seek to address issues of ecosystem diversity, resilience, and mobility in the Houston area. 

Tanweer Kaleemullah’s a husband and father of three children; he earned his JD from South Texas College of Law, LLM in National Security from Georgetown University Law Center, MHA/MBA from University of Houston-Clear Lake, BS in chemistry at Midwestern State University, secondary teaching certificate from the University of Texas-Arlington, is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and is Dare to Lead trained. Tanweer’s expertise and methods include public policy strategy/advocacy, legal and policy research, strategic partnerships, and convening stakeholders to advance collective solutions. His work in recent years has been focused on population health, more specifically addressing the social determinants of health. His experiences also include the integration of physical and mental health, emergency response (e.g. COVID, Hurricane Harvey), and health access. He currently works as a Program Officer at Episcopal Health Foundation and as an adjunct professor at University of Houston Law Center and South Texas College of Law. Prior to this, he worked for over two decades in public health, various healthcare systems, and a nonprofit, and he is a former high school teacher.

Jolea Payne has successfully led education and workforce programs to improve the quality of life in her hometown of Houston, Texas. Currently, Jolea is the Director of Development Operations for KIPP Texas Public Schools where she leads the team responsible for maintaining data and communications systems that support successful fundraising across the state. Prior to KIPP, Jolea was Program Director of Girls Inc. of Greater Houston and led the programming team that increased programming in systemically under-resourced communities and low-performing schools by nearly 50% in one year. Her career in the nonprofit sector began as an intern for West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, a community-based, environmental justice organization in Southwest Atlanta. Jolea received her B.S. and M.S. in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. She enjoys spending time outdoors with her family, listening to 90s R&B music, reading, and dancing.
 

Ken Teague is retired, since 2017, after 39 years studying in, and working professionally in coastal and wetland ecosystems of the Northwest Gulf of Mexico. Ken has a BS in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University (1979), and an MS in Marine Sciences from LSU (1983). He worked as a Research Associate at LSU for 3 years, as a Hydrologist in the Instream Uses Unit, at what was then the Texas Water Commission for 2 years, followed by a long career (28 years) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, in Dallas, in the coastal and wetlands programs. There Ken worked as the EPA Regional coordinator for the Galveston Bay National Estuary Program (until 1996), assisted other NEP’s and the Gulf of Mexico Program, then worked for over 15 years in the Louisiana Coastal Wetland Planning Protection and Restoration Act Program. Ken spent his last 3 years working in the EPA Wetlands Program, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers- Galveston District, and other agencies. Ken continues to very actively review and comment on USACE public notices, NEPA documents for proposed coastal projects, and to TCEQ on various coastal water quality matters. Ken lives outside Austin, Texas, and enjoys swimming, hiking, and kayaking nearby.

 

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Using science and law, Bayou City Waterkeeper works with communities affected by water pollution and flooding across greater Houston to restore our natural systems, achieve equitable policy solutions, and advance systematic change to benefit all who live within the Lower Galveston Bay watershed. Through the Clean Water Act, we hold polluters accountable and protect the water that flows through our bayous, creeks, wetlands, and neighborhoods into our coastal bays.