Carrin Patman

Patman has practiced trial law at Bracewell LLP for over 30 years, where she has handled all types of commercial litigation and was the first woman elected to serve on the firm’s management committee. She has regularly been named a Texas SuperLawyer, and was the first woman to receive the Anti-Defamation League’s Karen H. Susman Jurisprudence Award, which recognizes professional accomplishment combined with community service.

An active community volunteer, Patman is currently serving as a board member of the University of Texas (UT) Law School Foundation, the UT Health Science Center at Houston Development Board and UT’s Center for Women in Law, which she helped found.  She has extensive previous civic involvement that includes serving on the boards of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Legacy Community Health Services Endowment and as an executive committee member for Texas Appleseed, Girls Incorporated of Greater Houston and Sheltering Arms Senior Services.  She is former vice chair of the Houston Bar Association, former president of the UT Law Alumni Association, an American Leadership Forum Fellow and a 2014 Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative.

Carrin graduated with honors from Duke University in 1978, and attended the University of Texas School of Law, where she was on the Texas Law Review. She is married to Jim Derrick.

Lex Frieden

Frieden is recognized as pioneer and long-time advocate for people with disabilities. He is one of the founders of the independent living movement in the early 1970’s and was instrumental in conceiving and drafting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.  In addition to his teaching position at UT, he is an adjunct professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and directs the Independent Living Research Utilization Program at TIRR Memorial Hermann – a research, training and technical assistance program on independent living for people with disabilities.  He has served as chairperson of the National Council on Disability, president of Rehabilitation International and chairperson of the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Frieden holds degrees in psychology from the University of Tulsa and the University of Houston and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law (LL.D.) by the National University of Ireland. He has received two Presidential Citations for his work in the field of disability, has given more than 1,000 lectures and presentations and has had writings published more than 100 times. He is currently leading a national research study to evaluate the impact of the ADA and to identify population group disparities related to employment, transportation, housing and community living.

Troi Taylor

Taylor has eight years of experience in healthcare development and seven years of life sciences and higher education experience.   He has delivered 10 consecutive multi-million dollar capital improvement projects ahead of schedule and under budget.  He has substantial experience in the planning and construction of healthcare and industrial infrastructure facilities that includes working on projects for MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Hermann Healthcare Heart and Vascular Institute, Memorial Herman Mischer Neuroscience Institute and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. 

Taylor is a graduate of Prairie View A & M University and has a Master of Business Administration, Finance from the University of Houston.  His professional affiliations include the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers and the Project Management Institute.