Frances Brannen Vick was born in Trinity, Texas, August 14, 1935. She moved with her family to Lake Jackson, Texas in 1944 and graduated from Brazosport High School in 1953.  She holds a B.A. degree in English 1958 from The University of Texas at Austin, a M.A. degree in English 1969 from Stephen F. Austin State University, and a Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa) from the University of North Texas, 2000. 

She founded E-Heart Press in 1979–1987 and is the retired director and co-founder of the University of North Texas Press 1987–2000. She taught English at Stephen F. Austin State University, Angelina College and Baylor University before turning to publishing.

She served as president of Texas Institute of Letters 2006–2008; president of Texas State Historical Association 2008, Board member 2004–2010; president of The Philosophical Society of Texas 2012, Board until 2021; Fellow of the Texas Folklore Society 2008 and Texas State Historical Association; Pro Bene Meritis Liberal Arts Award from The University of Texas at Austin, the highest award given by that college 2009; The Humanities Texas Award 2009. She served as interim Secretary-Editor of the Texas Folklore Society 2019–2021. She serves on the Development Board, and the College of Liberal Arts Advisory Board at The University of Texas at Austin, the Texas A&M University Press Advisory Board, and TWU Advisory Council of the Institute for Women’s Leadership. 

In retirement, she has written One Hundred Years of “The Eyes of Texas” for the University of Texas Exes, Life Member 18,676; co-authored Petra's Legacy: The South Texas Ranching Empire of Petra Vela and Mifflin Kenedy, which won the Coral Horton Tullis Award for best book on Texas history from Texas State Historical Association; editor of Literary Dallas; co-authored Letters to Alice: Birth of the Kleberg–King Ranch Dynasty; editor of Texas Folklore Society Publications,The Family Saga: A Collection of Texas Family Legends,  and Tales of Texas Cooking: Stories and Recipes from the Trans-Pecos to the Piney Woods and High Plains to the Gulf Prairies; co-authored Dr. Arthur Spohn: Surgeon, Inventor, and Texas Medical Pioneer; written chapters in Texas Women Writers, Texas Women on the Cattle Trails, and Notes from Texas Writers. (photo by Nancy Campbell)

Jane was born in Houston, Texas in 1941, grew up in Huntsville, Texas, graduating from Huntsville High School. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1963 with a major in education and history. She is a former mayor of Huntsville, Texas, has served as chair of the Texas State University System Board of Regents, and served as Texas’ Public Commissioner to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. She served on the board of the Texas State Historical Association and is a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas. She is a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin.

She has co-authored seven books: From Slave to Statesman with Patricia Prather, Voices of the Wild Horse Desert, Tales of the Wild Horse Desert, Master Showmen of the King Ranch with Betty Colley, Petra’s Legacy, Letters to Alice, and Dr. Arthur Spohn: Surgeon, Inventor and Medical Pioneer with Fran Vick. 

Dr. Dwonna Naomi Goldstone is an Associate Professor of History and Director of the African American Studies program at Texas State University. Her book—Integrating the 40 Acres: The Fifty-Year Struggle for Racial Equality at the University of Texas at Austin (University of Georgia Press 2006), won the Coral H. Tulis Memorial Prize for the best book on Texas history. Dr. Goldstone has written several articles about African American history and culture, including “Home Economics,” a memoir about growing up poor and Black in Moline, and “Stirring Up Trouble,” an article about teaching race at a PWI. She is currently working on a book about Black suicide. 

Dr. Carlos Kevin Blanton is currently a Professor of History.  He joined the Aggie community in 2001 from teaching at Portland State University and a PhD at Rice University.  His authored books are The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, 1836–1981 (TAMU, 2004) and George I. Sánchez:  The Long Fight for Mexican American Integration (Yale, 2014) and he has recently edited A Promising Problem:  The New Chicana/o History (Texas, 2016).  Blanton’s work has been honored with the Coral Horton Tullis Award for best book in Texas history (2005), the Bolton Cutter Award for best article in Borderlands history (2010) and the National Association of Chicana-Chicano Studies best book award (2016).  He has also published in the Journal of Southern History, the Pacific Historical Review, the Western Historical Quarterly, the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, the Teachers College Record, and in other history and interdisciplinary journals.  In the spring of 2017 Blanton will serve as a Glasscock Center for Humanities Research Faculty Fellow as he works on his next book project, Between Black and White:  The Chicana/o in the American Mind.  He enjoys teaching 20th Century U.S, Texas, and Chicana/o history.

J. P. Bryan and his family have had years of involvement with the Texas State Historical Association and the history of Texas. His uncle, Guy M. Bryan was a founder and Secretary and served on the Board from 1897-1901. His father was President from 1965-1967, and J. P. was President from 1982-83. Recently he raised pledges of $750,000 to fund the Lone Star Chair in Texas History at the University of North Texas, to which he and his wife are contributors. He has raised more funds for the TSHA than anyone in its history. Bryan was first introduced to the TSHA by former TSHA Director, H. Bailey Carroll, for whom he served as a grader while attending The University of Texas in pursuit of his law degree. He is also the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Torch Energy Advisors Incorporated (TEAI) of Houston. In addition to his positions at Torch, Bryan has been actively involved in the oil and gas industry for more than 35 years.

James E. Crisp is Professor Emeritus of History at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He has authored or co-authored 10 books relating to Texas history, and his work has received state, national, and international awards for excellence. His award-winning Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution has been translated into Spanish and published in Mexico. Crisp’s most recent work Inside the Texas Revolution: The Enigmatic Memoir of Herman Ehrenberg” won the 2021 Summerfield G. Roberts Award Winner from the Sons of the Republic of Texas.

Author: “Inside the Texas Revolution: The Enigmatic Memoir of Herman Ehrenberg” (TSHA, 2021)
Author: “Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution” (Oxford Univ Press, 2014)

Laurie E. Jasinski, Research Editor, has more than 20 years of experience with the Handbook of Texas. She worked on the six-volume New Handbook of Texas from 1988 through 1995 and later rejoined the Association in 2002 to assist in the completion of the Handbook of Texas Music. She eventually became project manager and editor for The Handbook of Texas Music, Second Edition (TSHA, 2012).

John W. Crain of Dallas is President and CEO of the Summerlee Foundation. He is a Life Member of the TSHA Board of Directors and a past President, having served as the Association's 60th president from 2004-2005. Crain also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Texas Historical Commission and is chair of the Antiquities Advisory Board. Crain serves as an ex-officio member of the Sixth Floor Museum. He is also an advisory director of the Clements Center at SMU and the Friends of the Texas State History Museum. Crain has also served as President of the Texas Map Society. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas and a master's degree from Southwest Texas State University. Crain holds a Certificate in Arts Administration from Harvard University, a Certificate in Museum Management from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a graduate of the Endowment Institute. He has continued to be a member of a number of learned and honorary societies, including the Philosophical Society of Texas, the Phillip Lee Phillips Society of the Library of Congress and the Sons of the Republic of Texas, Thomas J. Rusk Chapter in Dallas.

Mary Margaret McAllen was raised on a storied South Texas ranch and writes about the history of the Southwest and Mexico. Her four books include the award-winning and best-selling I Would Rather Sleep in Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2003); A Brave Boy and a Good Soldier: John C. C. Hill and the Texas Expedition to Mier (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2006); Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico (San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press, 2014); and James Ferdinand McCan: Painting a Historical Portrait of Texas, 1895-1925 (San Antonio: Witte Museum, 2023). She has written book introductions and contributed to anthologies and has appeared on the PBS series History Detectives and contributed to Henry Louis Gate’s Faces of America.

She lives in San Antonio, and after earning her M.A. in history she taught as an adjunct professor of history at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She currently serves as Director of Humanities at the Witte Museum. She was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2024.