Norma Torres-Martinez is the new deputy associate commissioner for standards and alignment at the Texas Education Agency. (That's curriculum, textbooks and education technology, in English.) She started as a math teacher and has been at TEA for five years.
Lynna "Jan" Ferrari is the new director of state and local records at the Texas Stae Library and Archives Commission. She was previously at the Lower Colorado River Authority.
Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, was elected president pro tempore of the Senate at the end of the session.
Rep. Kristi Thibaut, D-Houston, got Freshman of the Year honors from the House. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, got that award from the House Republican Caucus. And Robert Miklos, D-Mesquite, got it from the Democratic Caucus. The Veterans Caucus named Chris Turner the Freshman of the Year. Those awards nearly always go to new members who have to run for reelection in tough districts. So it is this year.
Houston attorney Sean Roberts, a 37-year-old Democrat, is considering a run against U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Houston. He's formed a committee, and he's got a web page and a fundraising operation for that exploratory campaign.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed:
• Dan Allen Hughes Jr. of Beeville to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission. He owns a business that has the same name he has.
• Patricia Dickey to the Angelina and Neches River Authority's board. She owns Coldwell Banker agencies in Crockett and Nacogdoches.
• Kirby Hollingsworth of Mount Vernon to the Sulphur River Basin Authority's board. Hollingsworth, who has made three unsuccessful runs for the Texas House, owns Liberty Mobile Home Services.
• Trent McKnight of Throckmorton to the Brazos River Authority's board. He's a rancher and director of Olney Bancshares of Texas.
• Ramon Baez of Southlake and Robert Pickering of Houston to the Department of Information Resources. Pickering is being reappointed. Baez is chief information officer for Kimberly-Clark Corp.
• Victor Leal of Canyon to the Texas Economic Development Corp. He's a former mayor of Muleshoe and owns Leal's Mexican Restaurants.
• Kathy Leader-Horn, a school nurse in Granbury, Josefina Lujan, regional dean of the Texas Tech nursing school in El Paso, and Tamara Cowen, an exec with Valley Baptist Health System in Harlingen, to the Texas Board of Nursing. Perry also reappointed Sheri Crosby of Mesquite and Mary Jane Salgado of Eagle Pass to that board.
• Ashley Givens of Dallas, director of special events for the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, to the Executive Committee for the Office for the Prevention of Developmental Disabilities.
• Elaine "Anne" Boatright of Smithville to the Private Sector Prison Industry Oversight Authority. She's president and CEO of Capitol Credit Union. Two people won reappointments: Burnis Brazil of Richmond and Roxanne Carter of Canyon.
• Valerie Foreman of Frisco, Dr. John Leahy of Austin and Dr. Pamela Otto of San Antonio to the Texas Board of Licensure for Professional Medical Physicists. Former is a medical physicist with Baylor University Medical Center. Leahy is a radiologist, and Otto is a radiologist and a professor at the UT Health Sciences Center.
• Michelle Diggs of Cedar Park and Travis Morris of Austin to the Texas Human Rights Commission. Perry reappointed Veronica Stidvent of Austin to that board. Diggs is an exec at 3M Co. Morris is founder and pastor of Empowerment Temple. Stidvent heads the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ school at UT Austin.
• Dr. Rey Ximenes, owner of Pain and Stress Management Center in Austin, to the Texas State Board of Acupuncture Examiners.
• Wylie Mayor Eric Hogue and Susan Ridley of Sugar Land to the board of the Texas School for the Deaf. Hogue is an exec at EDS. Ridley is a financial analyst with the FBI. Perry reappointed Beatrice Burke of Temple, Walt Camenish III of Austin, Nancy Carrizales of Katy, and Angela Wolf of Austin to that board. Camenish will continue as chairman.
Deaths: Retired Judge Tom Davis, who was Wilbarger County Attorney and a state district judge before rising to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, where he worked from 1971 until 1986. He worked another four years as an assistant Texas attorney general. Davis was 87.
