Hey Amarillo

A conversation with Kathy Lopez, the entrepreneur and owner of Little Bee's Playhouse , a child-focused play and party venue in Wolflin Square. Lopez was a WT grad who went on to work in the corporate event world of the Metroplex, traveling internationally as a specialist in hospitality, marketing and event management. Then she returned to Amarillo. Lopez explains to host Jason Boyett how that mov...

A conversation with Matt Morgan, the interim director of Outdoor Amarillo and a longtime local volunteer, board member and nonprofit advocate. Morgan walks host Jason Boyett through his diverse career, which includes everything from marketing to human resources, personnel, grant management and more— including his current work with the International Sustainable Energy Foundation. He also shares abo...

A conversation with Andrew Brandt , a local novelist and one of the owners of Phone Medic , a smartphone and computer repair business with locations in Amarillo, Canyon and Lubbock. With host Jason Boyett, Brandt shares about these two divergent career paths. In one, he grew a computer repair hobby into a multi-location business—including a new Phone Medic site in Lubbock—by dreaming big and partn...

A conversation with Amelia Balderrama, the President and CEO of iDocket , a software company specializing in products for local governments, including statewide case management software used by cities and counties within the Texas judicial system—and potentially beyond. She shares with host Jason Boyett the company's origin story in Amarillo and how it now serves local courts, sheriff's offices an...

A conversation with Mark Zimmerman, the former Missions and Campus Development Pastor at Hillside Christian Church and the new Executive Director of Transformation Park . A unique public-private partnership designed to address homelessness in Amarillo, Transformation Park serves as a collaboration between the City of Amarillo, local churches and businesses. In this episode, Zimmerman explains the...

In this special live show recording, host Jason Boyett takes a seat on the other side of the host microphone as he is interviewed by former Amarillo mayor Ginger Nelson at Arts in the Sunset. (Don't miss last week's episode for Jason's in-depth interview of the mayor.) In front of an audience, Nelson asks Jason about entrepreneurship, how he would describe the current moment in Amarillo, and—not a...

A conversation with outgoing Amarillo mayor Ginger Nelson, recorded in front of a live audience at Arts in the Sunset. To celebrate the 300th episode of this podcast, Jason Boyett hosted a live show on May 5, 2023, interviewing Nelson—who'd served as the guest for the very first episode of Hey Amarillo in September 2017. In this episode, Nelson reflects on her tenure as mayor, answering questions...

A conversation with Maegan Laughlin, AuD, a clinical audiologist with Amarillo Hearing Clinic . Laughlin is a Sunray native who returned to the Panhandle after a prestigious clinical residency at the VA Medical Center in Johnson City, Tennessee. In Amarillo, she had the opportunity to take over and rebrand Ormson Hearing, a well-known local clinic with more than four decades of history. She shares...

A conversation with Rosemary Robinson, who is believed to be the longest-tenured employee in the history of the City of Amarillo . Rosemary began working for the City in 1973 in a position with the Amarillo Public Library, before quickly taking on an administrative role with the Amarillo Police Department. She has spent the past 50 years working for APD—and doesn't have current plans to retire. In...

Shannon Herrick, M.D. is a long-time local pediatrician and the  Regional Chair and Associate Professor for the Amarillo Pediatric Administration at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, which has just opened a new pediatrics clinic in southwest Amarillo . In this conversation with host Jason Boyett, Herrick shares how she ended up in Amarillo after growing up in San Antonio, how she balan...

Justin Thompson is a social worker with a career spanning from full-time instruction at WTAMU to several years on staff at Boys Ranch. He recently was profiled in Brick & Elm Magazine about his vintage golf clubs collection and the founding of the Tiger Flight Golf Club at Hamlet Elementary. Thompson tells host Jason Boyett about his career, the Tiger Flight origin story, his golf club addiction,...

A conversation with Cynthia Barela Graham , a family law attorney and the current chair of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Graham spent time as a criminal defense lawyer before turning her attention to family law, and currently emphasizes an approach known as "collaborative divorce." She tells host Jason Boyett how this mediation process helps couples navigate divorce without mud-slinging...

A conversation with Stephanie Brady, the founder and executive director of Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center . A former vet tech and experienced wildlife rehabber, Brady moved to Amarillo in 2015 only to discover she was the only rehabber in the area with an official permit. Within a year, she had organized Wild West, and last year the organization cared for more than 3,000 orphaned and inj...

A conversation with Joe Garcia III, the Chief Revenue Officer for eCatholic . Garcia lives in Amarillo and works remotely for this global tech company, which gives him the time and ability to serve the local community as " JPEG Joe ," a local portrait and sports photographer. He's also the managing partner of Press Pass Sports , an independent publication covering sports in the Texas Panhandle. Ga...

A conversation with Zack Wilson, executive director of High Plains Food Bank . Wilson's first experience with the Food Bank was as a communication intern when he was a WT student. More than two decades later, he's heading up this massive nonprofit, which serves the entire Texas Panhandle and distributes more than 8 million pounds of food a year. In this conversation with host Jason Boyett, Wilson...

A conversation with Mary Jane Johnson, the general and artistic director for Amarillo Opera . Before taking that role a few years ago, she was one of the world's great dramatic sopranos in the international opera scene. While based in Amarillo, she performed worldwide, from Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera in New York to the Sydney Opera House in Australia. She's been the subject of a PBS...

A conversation with Adrian Escobar, the Outdoor Recreation Planner for the  Cross Bar Management Area . Escobar is employed by the Bureau of Land Management—a federal agency. The only BLM land in Texas is located just a few miles northwest of Amarillo, and he's working to turn that historic property into a Special Recreation Management Area that includes campsites, trails and other outdoor activit...

A conversation with Angela Knapp Eggers, the Senior Managing Director of the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women's Health in Amarillo. A former ballerina whose career has spanned both the nonprofit and for-profit spheres, Knapp Eggers worked for cattleman Paul Engler during the big Oprah trial in 1998 and guided the Lone Star Ballet through the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Since 2010, she's wo...

A conversation with Matt Griffith, the vice president of Rockrose Development , the company behind the development of Amarillo neighborhoods including The Colonies, Westover Park and Pinnacle . Griffith began designing houses in high school, worked in planning for the City of Amarillo, and has now spent nearly 30 years with Rockrose. He shares with host Jason Boyett about the role of developers in...

A conversation with Rachel Flores, the Executive Director of Amarillo Art Institute . This nonprofit offers art workshops and classes all year long at Sunset Center, where Flores is helping spearhead the renovation of Arts in the Sunset. In this episode, she tells host Jason Boyett about growing up in Bushland, moving back to Amarillo as an adult, and beginning her job just a year before the passi...

A conversation with Joshua Raef, the owner/operator of Chick-fil-A Georgia Street and Chick-fil-A Westgate Mall. Raef tells host Jason Boyett about growing up in Amarillo Catholic schools, how he got into the restaurant business and how his businesses have weathered challenges—from the pandemic to the chain's nationwide controversies related to politics and gay marriage, more than a decade ago. In...

A conversation with Idella Jackson, who serves as the Constable Precinct 4 for Potter County. Jackson arrived in Amarillo as a young single mother—and a high school dropout—determined to provide for her children and build a career. She spent more than a decade at the William P. Clements Unit with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, then nearly eight years with the Potter County Sheriff's Off...

A conversation with Kelli Bullard, who is temporarily retired after careers in publishing, communications, senior living and the nonprofit world (among other workplaces). Kelli recently authored an article in Brick & Elm Magazine about her journey to recover from multiple brain surgeries to treat a brain tumor, and the frightening complications that resulted during the process. In this episode, sh...

A conversation with Kevin Carter , the President and CEO of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation. Kevin spent his early career in Plainview before arriving in Amarillo in 2019, and quickly realized he was here to stay. With the AEDC, his job is to sell Amarillo as a destination for primary businesses, with the goal of expanding industry and manufacturing in the city. In this episode, Cart...

A conversation with Gwen Hicks, the Executive Director of Amarillo Angels , an organization that provides community for children and families in foster care. Hicks founded the organization in 2016 after a long career in education, from teaching elementary school to serving as a junior high counselor to coordinating Head Start at Region 16. In this episode, she shares with host Jason Boyett how her...