Senior Fellows serve as mentors to our Patman Scholars.
As experts in their fields, they offer guidance and advice to students interested in similar career paths. Over the year, the Senior Fellows and Patman Scholars develop meaningful relationships that help the Scholars in their careers or any civic pursuit that interests them.
Thank you, Senior Fellows, for sharing your time and wisdom with our Scholars!
2024 Senior Fellows
Alejandra Castillo
Alejandra Y. Castillo was sworn in as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development on August 13, 2021, becoming the first women of color to hold this position. In this unprecedented moment of growth and opportunity, she leads the only federal agency focused exclusively on economic development. As the daughter of immigrants and small business owners, her journey is the embodiment of the American Dream. Her career has also included shattering glass ceilings and providing inspiration to multiple generations of diverse leaders. In 2014, Castillo was appointed by President Obama to serve as the National Director of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), the first Hispanic woman to lead the agency. Her commitment to ensuring opportunity for every American is reflected in her current service as Federal Co-Chair for the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and as Co-Vice Chair of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Council for Inclusive Innovation. Castillo first joined the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2008 as a Special Advisor to the Under Secretary for the International Trade Administration. Additionally, Castillo served as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House during the Clinton Administration.
Phillip Nevels
Phillip Nevels, MPAFF, Co-founder of the social impact consulting firm Our Cause, has nearly 15 years of experience in growing and innovating national education initiatives. Most recently, he served as Partner of Programs for Catalyst:Ed, a 501c3 nonprofit focused on capacity building for the education sector. In this role, Phillip supported and grew Catalyst:Ed’s postsecondary education portfolio, including leading sustainability planning, strategy development and implementation, network collaboration, partner coordination, and fiscal management for multiple national coalitions focused on equitable outcomes in postsecondary education. Before Catalyst:Ed, Phillip led projects building capacity at over 60 minority-serving institutions in collaboration with the US Department of Education. His leadership roles span from executive director at a national college access nonprofit, a fellow at the largest foundation in Texas, and a staff member at the Texas legislature. Phillip is actively involved in his community as the President of the LBJ School of Public Affairs Alumni Board and the Treasurer for the Piedmont Animal Welfare Alliance.
Carey O'Conner
Carey O’Conner is a Senior Strategist at Jobs for the Future and is a former Harvard University Leadership Fellow. For the past 30 years, Carey has forged partnerships between communities, educational organizations, and businesses to build a competitive, diverse workforce of the future. Most recently, she partnered with Jobs for the Future in mobilizing Fortune 500 business leaders to develop talent management practices that lead to equitable economic advancement for all employees. She also incubated and launched multiple programs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area dedicated to giving underserved youth economic mobility through high-demand career pathways. That includes creating and guiding scalable growth for the Dallas College Workforce Scholars youth apprenticeship program and co-founding the Dallas Thrives community partnership.
As a result of her work, she has earned many awards including the US Department of Labor award for innovative business-led community partnerships and the Vandergriff Award for non-profit leadership in North Texas. She has also been named a top Women in Business by the Dallas Business Journal and included in D Magazine’s Dallas 500.
Becky Pastner
Becky Pastner is a certified leadership coach, strategic advisor, and adjunct assistant professor with 20+ years of diverse experience in programmatic, operational, and leadership roles across the social sector. As the founder of Pastner Leadership LLC, Becky works with a diverse portfolio of philanthropic, academic, and nonprofit clients, focusing on leadership development, strategy design, and implementation planning. Becky is a graduate of Haverford College and the LBJ School of Public Affairs, where she concentrated in Health and Social Policy and earned a Certificate in Nonprofit Studies. A graduate of Leadership Austin and the McBee Fellowship with the Austin Area Research Organization, Becky is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation, and received her coaching certification in Leadership and Performance Coaching from Brown University/ACT Leadership.
LeRoy Potts
LeRoy Potts is the Director of the Entity List Office in the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans (Policy) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). His office, pursuant to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), is charged with preventing the importation of goods mined, produced, or manufactured with forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China from entering the U.S. Before joining DHS, he served over 17 years as a foreign affairs officer in the U.S. Department of State. He was an advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York and a U.S. delegate on the U.N.’s Fifth Committee. Mr. Potts received his B.A. (1985) from Colgate University, an M.P.A. (1990) from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, and a J.D. (2002) from The George Washington University School of Law. Born in Philadelphia, he enjoys scuba diving and genealogical research.
Gretchen Tietje
Gretchen Tietje is a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. She joined the Cyberspace and Digital Policy bureau as a Senior Policy Advisor for Digital Freedom in November 2022, where she worked at the intersection of technology and human rights. She previously served in Washington as a Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, where she advised the Under Secretary on South and Central Asian affairs, sanctions policy, and technology policy; as a Watch Officer on the Intelligence and Research Watch; and as a Turkey Desk Officer. Gretchen served overseas in Frankfurt, Germany; Ottawa, Canada; and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Gretchen worked for NASA’s Johnson Space Center and for the American Cancer Society. Gretchen earned a BA in Government and BSc in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and studied at the Australian National University. She also holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a graduate of the Foreign Service Institute’s six-month, intensive economic studies program. Her foreign languages are German, Dutch, and Spanish.