Houston P. A. hosted by Laurent

Jaime Herrero is the executive director of Workshop Houston and with him is Brianna Burns, a poet and rapper known as Lil’ Bri. Bri has found great success with her talent. She has appeared on a couple of national TV shows, including "The Four". She shares her experiences (she is 17) and Jaime points out that while her story is unusual because of the TV cameras, her success is not. This is what th...

Genevieve Keeney is the president of The National Museum of Funeral History. She is also a licensed mortician and an Army veteran and that plays into a great conversation. The National Museum of Funeral History is opening the first exhibit on the History of Cremation in the country. It opens on September 17 and right after, they will celebrate Halloween with a family-friendly haunted house and an...

Toni Capra is the executive director of Da Camera and Perryn Leech is the managing director of Houston Grand Opera. They are participating in the TransCanada Theater District Open House on Sunday, August 26. This free event is an opportunity to visit the Wortham Center, Jones Hall and the other theatres in the district. All the companies who perform downtown, including Houston Ballet and the Theat...

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Robert Simpson is the founder and artistic director of Houston Chamber Choir and Mariam Khalili is their managing director. Houston Chamber Choir is 26 professional singers who are so good they recently won an award from Chorus America. They also have an educational programs and these music classes are among the best way to build a caring community. They have also created a Young Professionals gro...

Kevin Hattery is the president and CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston. He gives me another opportunity to talk about the Houston Area's generous spirit. They will have 20 clubs open this fall, thanks to new funding from some of our major corporations. They also have a long-standing relationship with NASA, providing their club kids with a direct connection to the best science center in the...

Aisha Ussery is the creator and director of Music Doing Good in Schools. She has a Masters of Education and is also a playwright. She brings these skills to schools around Houston to teach students like Curslynn Thomson and Monserrat Meza. Not yet teenagers, they both exhibit a lot of maturity, a great sense of humor and are living proof of the pacifying, civilizing influence of art classes on stu...

Roy Ferretiz is the bilingual youth and outreach specialist for AVDA: Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse. They are online at www. AVDA-TX.org and that's where you can sign up for their free Coaching Boys into Men (CBIM) program which has become a vital part of some area high school athletic programs, providing mentorship tools to coaches so that they can be prepared to not only be great role models...

Dr. Robert Sanborn is the president & CEO of Children at Risk. We discuss the interactive map they have created to show Houstonians how common illegal brothels posing as massage parlors are and how close they are to their homes and children's schools. They exist mostly in affluent neighborhoods like River Oaks and The Village and downtown and they are trafficking women and children into the sex tr...

Eva Thibaudeau is the vice president Coalition for the Homeless. They've received a grant from JPMorgan Chase & co to kick start the LEAP program. LEAP stands for "Landlord Engagement and Assistance Program," which is designed to help Landlords rent to the homeless, who are likely to by using subsidies. We discuss why landlords like the program and how this kind of work, done by non-profits, aided...

Jane Weiner is the founder and director of Hope Stone, Inc. and Ashley Horn is an education specialist who c-teaches with Jane a lot. Jane describes Ashely as "magic with children" and indeed, Ashley provides some of those undeniable examples of how an art class, be it dance or other, can help children socialize, build self-respect. As Jane says, Art imbeds itself and those building blocks make fo...

Dr. Melanie Johnson is the President and CEO for The Health Museum. Her PhD in education so I get to geek out about the awesome exhibits they've built which are all interactive teaching experiences. Think fun like Disneyland but all about biology and science. They are offering summer camps and they have the Teen Summit coming in July. This program allows teens to spend time in the medical center,...

Shellye Arnold is the president and CEO of Memorial Park Conservancy. The Kinder Foundation has helped them capitalize $200 million for projects to be competed in the next 10 years. It's a great example of public (city) and private (citizens) partnership which once again puts Houston on the forefront of such projects. They will build a spectacular natural bridge and water features which will also...

Allison Booker Brooks is the CEO of the YWCA of Houston. They are celebrating brilliant Houstonians with their Outstanding Women Luncheon on May 24th. You can get tickets to the event on their website and help fund their Meals On Wheels program (they serve 1500 meals a day to elderly Houstonians) and their brand new service center which will help victims of human slavery. We discuss this important...

Juliet Stipeche is the Director of Education for the City of Houston and Dave Moss is a McDonald's Owner and Operator and the Founder of Hire Houston Youth. He runs their On The Spot Hiring Program. They are aiming to hire over 7500 Houston Youths and they are providing them with tremendous resources on top of these employment opportunity (like job clothing and bus passes). It's not just McDonald'...

Kevin Myer is the president and chief executive officer for LifeGift and Brian Rothermel is a heart transplant recipient who is about to celebrate being 24 years post-transplant. He was diagnosed with a deadly heart disease when he was in his 20s. After being placed on a waiting list, he received the heart of a young woman. He eventually met with her family and it's as powerful a story as it is mo...

Emily Manderson is the conservation director for the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center and Christine Mansfield is their manager of marketing and development. The Houston Arboretum is in the middle of a 3 phase renovation which will include a new Children's playscape. Major improvements have already been made to the nature trails and you should know their Arboretum at Night events to learn about...

The Houston Museum of Natural Science opened a new exhibit: Death by Natural Causes and David Temple, their associate curator of paleontology, is on hand for another awesome conversation. We talk about the less obvious causes of natural death, like the red and white amanita mushroom and the assassin bug but we also discuss some of those deadly things we all know about, like rattlesnakes and deadly...

Ashley Brochette is the marketing manager for Child Advocates and Kelly St. Mary is the sponsorship director for McDonald's Houston Children’s Festival. They are celebrating the festival's 30th year on Saturday and Sunday, April 7th and 8th. It is the biggest festival of its kind in the country and it's only $10 to buy tickets online: www.houstonchildrensfestival.com . The McDonald's Houston Child...

Our friend Dr. Vernus Swisher is back to fill us with optimism. He is the CEO of Career and Recovery Resources (CRR), a United Way of Greater Houston agency, and he and his awesome staff just moved into the Baroness Kandy Kaye Horn Employment & Technology Building. It was finished thanks to a huge and generous gift by the lady whose name is on the building. It allows CRR to help even more people....

Schelika Chisolm is the emergency disaster services statistician for the Salvation Army of Greater Houston and Janae Jones is the education coordinator for the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Clubs. She is administering the program which awards the Youth of the Year which she won years ago, before joining the organization professionally. She is the first person in her family to graduate from college a...

Rodney Waters is the program director for Music Doing Good with Scholarships and Phillip Hall is their director of Music Doing Good In Service, a brand new program. Phillip is providing free coaching and piano accompaniment to students learning how to sing – in their school, as you might have guessed. He helps them pass their important UIL exams. It is a perfect example of a local non-profit ident...

Cullen Geiselman is a board member of Houston Parks Board and she is the co-chair of Bayou Greenway Day. Doug Overman is the chief advancement officer for Houston Parks Board. Bayou Greenway Day is on March 24th at Tidwell Park in Northeast Houston. It will celebrate the progress of Bayou Greenways 2020 which is on track to be completed on time. This massive endeavor creates a continuous parks sys...

Kelly Young is the CEO of AIDS Foundation Houston and Joe Fuentes is the CEO of Avenue 360 Health & Wellness which brings a holistic approach to helping uninsured people obtain the health services they need (physical and psychological). AIDS Foundation works with Avenue 360 Health & Wellness and they will be donating part of the proceeds from their next fundraiser: Rock the Walk, March 4, 2018. A...

Adam Farris is the owner and President of Younique Abilities, a company that sells merchandise like jewelry and keychains manufactured by people with disabilities. Adam is on the autism spectrum and has Tourette syndrome but he sees himself and his partners as "Younique" and in possession of great talents. With him is Eddie Page, the vice president of Younique Abilities. First and foremost, Eddie...