Hey Amarillo

A conversation with Todd McLees, the Managing Partner at Innovation Outpost , an innovative new learning center associated with Amarillo College. McLees came specifically to Amarillo to work for this initiative after several decades as an executive in the tech world. McLees shares with host Jason Boyett about his short career as the Milwaukee Bucks mascot, why Amarillo is becoming a hub for techni...

A conversation with Tim Oditt , Head of School at Ascension Academy. Oditt arrived in Amarillo in the summer of 2020 to guide this college-prep school, after having spent the previous decade at a private school in Ohio and a military academy in Virginia. Oditt is an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne. In this episode, he shares with host Jason Boyett about his...

A conversation with Skylar Gallop , a former TV news reporter and anchor who now serves as the Texas Panhandle Regional Advocacy Director for Raise Your Hand Texas. A WT graduate, Gallop spent several years in the San Angelo and Tyler media markets before returning to this area. She shares with host Jason Boyett about her TV news career—and why she stepped away from it. She also details her stint...

A conversation with Leslie Massey , a Farmers Insurance Agent in Amarillo and co-owner of The Shop , an event venue. After an early career selling online advertising for the newspaper, Massey changed careers after the 2008 financial crisis. She explains to host Jason Boyett how she built up her insurance business, the challenges the industry is facing today, and why she also helps manage an event...

A conversation with Donivan Blair, an Amarillo resident who lives here but travels all over the world as the bassist for the rock band The Toadies, which he joined in 2008. Over the past couple decades he has recorded 17 albums—several with the band Hagfish, which he founded—and performed in hundreds of venues. Doni also holds a first-degree black belt in Taekwondo, is learning Jiu Jitsu, and is t...

A conversation with Rickie Johnson, a motivational speaker in Amarillo who specializes in financial literacy seminars. His family moved frequently when Johnson was a kid—he grew up in Pampa, Tulia, and various stints in Amarillo. He tells host Jason Boyett how his upbringing in a low-income household convinced him most families didn't struggle with a lack of income, but a lack of knowledge about h...

A conversation with Lilia Escajeda, a retired banker and long-time community leader. Born in El Paso, Escajeda arrived in Amarillo in the 1970s. Upon being hired by Amarillo National Bank, she became the first female loan officer of any bank in Amarillo. She spent decades at ANB before retiring in 2010, after which she served elected terms as the first Mexican-American woman on the Amarillo Colleg...

A conversation with Randy Ray , Director of Broadcast Engineering at West Texas A&M University and a Canyon City Commissioner. A native of Pampa, Ray graduated from WT before spending the next 15 years in Nashville, where he ended up managing the huge Sunset Studios. He returned to WT in 2002 to help design the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex. Ray shares with host Jason Boyett about his stin...

A conversation with Lindsay Irwin, who owns CannFusion Juice with her husband, Jarratt. After attending high school and college in the Metroplex area, Lindsay traveled for several years around the United States before landing in Amarillo. Once here, she helped found the Amarillo Community Market, taught school, and launched CannFusion, a brand of juice shots blended with hemp-derived CBD and THC....

A conversation with Eric Gomez, principal of the new West Plains High School in the Canyon Independent School District. Gomez is not only in the process of staffing the first new high school in the city in decades, but also helping establish its culture and personality. In this conversation with host Jason Boyett, the former coach shares how he found his way into education, how a personal tragedy...

A conversation with Kim May, the CEO/Founder at Nobox Creative , a strategic marketing firm. Kim grew up in Denver but arrived in Amarillo as a young adult after fleeing domestic violence. In Amarillo she found a place to start over and spent the next decade in the early cellular phone industry. She tells host Jason Boyett how she found her footing in telecommunications, shifted careers as the ind...

A conversation with Johnny Terra, an Amarillo-based CPA and partner at LPT CPAs + Advisors . Johnny grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but came to the Texas Panhandle on a full basketball scholarship to Wayland Baptist University. He remained in the area after college, and work eventually brought him to Amarillo. In this conversation with host Jason Boyett, Terra shares about the culture shock of...

A conversation with Courtney White , assistant city attorney for the City of Amarillo. Growing up the daughter of two lawyers, White initially started her legal career in a local firm before shifting her attention to municipal law—one of the most generalist occupations within the legal community. White tells host Jason Boyett what she loves about being a "low-level bureaucrat," what legal work loo...

A conversation with Jim Womack , Executive Director of Family Support Services. A native of southeast Colorado, Jim arrived in the Panhandle for college, and has since served this area in a variety of different roles from the criminal justice system to the nonprofit world. In this conversation with host Jason Boyett, Womack shares about leading Family Support Services through a fire that destroyed...

A conversation with Jackie Nammathao Maldonao, a children's ministry director at the Hillside Amarillo North Grand Campus . Jackie was born in the United States, but her parents arrived in Amarillo as refugees from Laos. She grew up navigating a distinctly multicultural space, honoring her family's traditions while also fully embracing her American identity. In this conversation with host Jason Bo...

In a special Father's Day episode, 19 year-old Owen Boyett interviews his dad, Hey Amarillo host Jason Boyett, about parenting and fatherhood. Owen is a psychology student at Texas A&M University and, in this intimate conversation between father and son, the two discuss parenting, family proximity, growing up in Amarillo, and Jason's relationship with his own father, the late architect Mike Boyett...

A conversation with Taylor Van Valkenburg, the VP of Operations at U.S. Cleaners , a local dry-cleaning business. After growing up here, Taylor didn't think she would return to Amarillo—and definitely didn't plan to lead the family business. But she found out that Amarillo is a fantastic place for entrepreneurship, and U.S. Cleaners has grown significantly in the past few years. She tells host Jas...

A conversation with Josué "Sway" Navarro, the entrepreneur and barber behind the new Renovated Esthetics brand. Sway was born in Durango, Mexico, but grew up in Amarillo. He taught himself to cut hair while attending Caprock High School, converting his tiny bedroom into a makeshift salon to help out his single mom. After graduating, Sway connected with high-profile barbers across the U.S. and move...

A conversation with Gloria Cabrera , a certified health and life coach who works with women who want to lose weight. Raised in Puerto Rico by Cuban parents, Cabrera moved to Amarillo in the 1990s as a young mom with three young children. She set aside her psychology career in the process, only to return to the workforce when her kids had grown—and when her own personal weight gain required some li...

A conversation with Dr. Erin Avirett, an Amarillo-based child psychologist. A specialist in school neuropsychology, Avirett performs neuropsychological assessment and therapy for children and teenagers all over the Texas Panhandle. She also one of the founders of Mind & Child , an online parenting course designed to improve child-parent relationships. In this conversation, she tells Jason Boyett h...

A conversation with Jay Barrett, a longtime academic administrator and the principal of the new AmTech Career Academy . Opened in Fall 2021 by the Amarillo Independent School District, AmTech won the nationwide "Most Innovative Learning Spaces" award from Tech & Learning Magazine and has gained attention all over the United States. Barrett, who began his education in a one-room schoolhouse and tau...

A conversation with Kristin DeRight, owner of Purpose + Passion Boutique . Many of the fashion, decór and gift products carried by this Wolflin Village shop are designed to give back to other organizations. This focus is a culmination of DeRight's unique background, which includes stints in the nonprofit world, fashion and retail merchandising, and online sales. In this conversation with host Jaso...

A conversation with Casie Stoughton, Director of Public Health for the city of Amarillo. Since COVID-19 arrived here in March of 2020, Stoughton has been the public face of the city's pandemic response. In this conversation with host Jason Boyett, Stoughton shares why she choose public health as a career, how the city rolled out its vaccine distribution so efficiently, and how she and her team hav...

A conversation with Chris McGilvery, founder and executive director of the Leaders Readers Network (LRN) and a Ph. D. student at Texas Tech University. A long-time educator who came to Amarillo after stints in central Texas, New York State, and the Caribbean island of Dominica, McGilvery started his nonprofit to help improve literacy programming in local school districts. He tells host Jason Boyet...

A conversation with Kaytie Gann, the owner and creator of Hollow Dot Designs . After living in Canada and Europe, Gann eventually settled in Amarillo and launched her jewelry brand in 2016. Her delicate Welded Forever bracelets—which are permanently attached to the wrist—have gained a huge local following, turning jewelry-buying into an immersive experience. She tells host Jason Boyett how her bus...