Staff

Bee Moorhead, Executive Director

Bee Moorhead, Executive Director- Bee Moorhead is the executive director of Texas Impact and Texas Interfaith Power & Light. She is a respected leader in public policy and faith-based advocacy at the state and national levels.

Bee has been director of Texas Impact since 2000, managing every aspect of the organization’s work and answering to a 45-member board of directors made up of representatives from the state’s many faith communities.  Under Bee’s leadership, Texas Impact has moved from fewer than 1,000 members to more than 20,000 members and earned recognition as a national leader in interfaith education and community leadership development.

Bee spent eight years as a senior fiscal policy analyst for former Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts John Sharp, where she helped to lead the nationally known Texas Performance Review, providing members of the Texas Legislature with numerous recommendations for strengthening state government and state services. Bee was responsible for the Comptroller's attention to public policy issues related to health and human services, and she was the chief architect of Family Pathfinders, a unique program linking Texas congregations and civic organizations with families on public assistance.

Bee holds a Master's Degree from the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from UT-Austin. She spent four years as a freelance theatrical costume designer and staff costumer at the UT Performing Arts Center.

In 2011 Bee was awarded the “Trailblazer” Award by the National Council of Jewish Women. She has served on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Pollution Prevention Advisory Council and currently serves on several advisory committees to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. She is a trained Climate Project presenter.

Bee is an adjunct faculty member at St. Edward’s University in the Political Science Department where she teaches Legislative Process, and she is looking forward to co-instructing a course at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Fall 2012.

An ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Bee has been a member of University Presbyterian Church in Austin since 1983. She is married to Robert Moorhead, a long-time staff member of the award-winning PBS television show "Austin City Limits." The Moorheads have three children.

Joshua Houston, General Counsel

Josh serves as Texas Impact's attorney and also performs legislative and regulatory affairs.  In the promotion of Texas Impact's Legislative Agenda, he works primarily on energy, utility, environmental, first amendment and administrative law as well as campaign finance, payday lending and criminal justice issues.  He represents Texas Impact and small commercial customers on the board of ERCOT and is a member of the Administrative Law Section of the Austin Bar Association. 

Josh joined Texas Impact in August 2010.  He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence in May of 2010 from the University of Texas School of Law and is a member of the Texas State Bar. In 2007, he received a Master of Theological Studies from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He completed his undergraduate work in 2004 at Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Philosophy. Josh currently attends Triumphant Love Lutheran Church where his fiance works in the youth ministry.

Before coming to Texas Impact, Josh spent the 81st Legislative Session as a Legislative Assistant to State Representative Robert Miklos. In addition to assisting with Rep. Miklos’ bills and the Daily House Calendar, Josh’s duties included legislation in the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and its Capital Punishment Subcommittee which Rep. Miklos chaired. During the 79th Legislative Session, Josh was a Public Policy Consultant for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, the public policy and ethics arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. While at CLC, he specialized in criminal justice, gambling, educational and First Amendment issues.  During law school, he interned during the summers at CLC and at the Travis County District Attorney’s Office in the 147th District Court.  He was on the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial team and worked as a student attorney in UT Law's Actual Innocence and Legislative Lawyering Clinics.

Amanda Yaira Robinson, Texas Interfaith Power & Light Coordinator

Amanda joined the staff in May 2008 and coordinates Texas Interfaith Power and Light (TXIPL), the environmental program of Texas Impact. TXIPL is one of 38 state Interfaith Power and Light programs.

Amanda graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She worked some in publishing and some as a stay-at-home-mom before serving two Unitarian Universalist churches as Director of Religious Education from 2004-2009. Amanda is a part time student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, working on a Masters in Theological Studies. She is also a Contributing Scholar for the online journal, State of Formation, and is a 2012 GreenFaith Fellow.

Amanda Yaira is a member of Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin. She and her husband Mark, a middle school principal, live in Cedar Park with their two boys; their one-eyed pug dog; a new guinea pig named "Helen"; two bearded dragons; and an assortment of fish.

Follow Amanda's blog here.

Cara Chiodo, Office Manager

Cara Chiodo joined the staff of Texas Impact as Office Manager in February of 2007. In this position, she is responsible for day-to-day operations of the office, financial record-keeping, and grants administration. Cara received a Bachelor of Arts in World Religious Studies from Loyola University New Orleans, graduating summa cum laude. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she moved back to her hometown of Austin, finished her senior thesis on Zen Catholicism, and began pursuing work in interfaith social justice. As a life-long member of First Baptist Church of Austin, she is thrilled by the changes and expansion that her own faith community has undergone in the past decade. Cara is an avid traveler and has studied and worshipped with people of many different faiths in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. When not at work or jotting around the globe with a backpack, she enjoys spending time in Austin’s many coffee shops, attending music festivals, and searching for the world’s perfect taco.

Andrea Earl, Policy Analyst

Andrea joined Texas Impact as an AmeriCorps VISTA to assist with the Texas Disaster Recovery Project in April 2010. Her policy focuses include environmental policy, disaster policy, local government and healthcare policy. Andrea received her Bachelor’s in Communication Public Relations from Appalachian State University in 2006. In May 2009, Andrea earned her Master’s degree in Public Administration from Appalachian State University, where she held the position of Research Assistant for the MPA department. A native of North Carolina, Andrea has worked on varying economic, community development and nonprofit projects with the N.C. Rural Center and rural N.C. municipalities. In her spare time, Andrea enjoys hiking and kayaking, going to music shows and making balloon animals.

Selena Xie, Policy Analyst

Selena Xie joined Texas Impact as a VISTA with the Texas Disaster Recovery Project in September 2009. Her focuses include disaster policy, food policy, and payday lending reform.  Selena majored in Political Science and Economics at Amherst College and received a Bachelors of Arts degree in May 2009. In 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, she developed her interest in disaster policy as an Assistant Manager at Camp Hope with Habitat for Humanity. She helped create and coordinated the Mustard Seed, the first relief store in St. Bernard's Parish providing food and baby supplies for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.  In 2008, she became Research Assistant at Root Cause, a nonprofit consulting firm in Boston, where she focused on creating special products for its philanthropic clients.

Erika Wheat, Research Intern

Erika K. Wheat is a native Texan; born and raised in Houston, Texas. She is a senior year at St. Edward’s University. In May 2012, she will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Business Administration. She hopes to attend law school within a year of graduating from St. Edward’s. She is an intern at Texas Impact and is really excited to be working with wonderful people and eager to learn about advocating for people.