Place 1: Term ends in 2014.

Tim Mahoney, first elected as a board member in May 2008, is an attorney, community lawyer, and trained mediator. Building structures for community cooperation and consensus have been among his longtime interests, and community education has been his passion. Graduating in 1974 from Dallas Community College, Tim returned to Austin in 1975, completing a degree in Humanities from the University of Texas in 1978. His journalism skills won him a number of national awards for articles written in The Texas Observer about taxing and bank-holding companies. Tim’s attendance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs resulted in his 1982 Master’s thesis: A Case Study of Decentralized Power Systems and Municipal Politics, Austin, Texas, 1979 to 1981. Entering the South Texas College of Law in 1989, he received his J.D. in 1991, with course work at the University of Texas School of Law. He was licensed to practice law in Texas in 1992.

Community colleges are the gateway to higher learning, absolutely essential for growing a workforce that will sustain a robust future for Texas citizens. Tim is the product of a community college. During his campaign in early 2008, he was buoyed by the spontaneous stories voters told him about their positive community college experiences. Often these folks were the first in a working-class family to go to college,  worked while going to school, or increased their educational opportunities at different stages of their lives. For many, without the community college option, there would have been no college at all!

For the last few years, Tim has worked with other community leaders to find ways to empower local communities. That continuing effort has included organizing neighborhood-based capacity-building training programs, including the 2007 Neighborhood Planning Conference at Austin Community College’s Eastview Campus.  See:  www.neighboraustin.com .

Tim and his wife, Melanie, have been married since 1989. Between them they have four children. The two oldest are married; one lives in Chicago, Illinois, and the other in Asheville, North Carolina. The two youngest attend AISD schools.