Hi, I'm Nora Lopez, executive editor of the San Antonio Express-News.

Our guest today is Anne Krause.

She's the senior vice president of development at Texas 2036, a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization working to make sure that as Texas population continues to explode, that we have the resources and infrastructure to meet those needs.

Krauss came to Texas during flight training after graduating from the Air Force Academy.

Among her many accolades, a meritorious Service Medal from her Air Force Thunderbird team.

The San Antonio Business Journal's 2023 woman of the year and the Women's Leadership Award.

She previously served as the co-founder, president, and executive director of the HemisFair Conservancy, where she was instrumental in helping open Civic Park at HemisFair.

Thank you for joining us.

And so you're a mother of five.

You were born in North Carolina, raised in Chicago.

Tell me a little bit about your upbringing and how that has shaped the person that you are today, the parent that you are today.

My mother is from Minnesota.

My dad is from the Chicago area.

So the reason I was born in North Carolina is my dad was with Western Electric at the time, but I we moved to new Jersey for a little bit, but from kindergarten, excuse me, from first grade, all the way up until graduating from high school.

I lived in Aurora, Illinois, which is west of Chicago.

I love my family and I love the Midwest, but I did not apply to a single college in the Midwest.

I wanted to try something different, and so I was very excited to get accepted into the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Something I interesting that I learned there is I don't have a problem with cold.

What I don't like is gray skies.

In Colorado, there's a lovely way to have a really cold day, and the sun is shining and I like that.

Texas also has lots of sunny days, which I like.

The way I got to Texas is after I graduated from the Air Force Academy, my first assignment was to go to undergraduate pilot training at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas.

I was blown away by how friendly Texans were, and I fell in love with the state.

And I've lived in Texas longer than anywhere else in my life.

My, my path to having five children is a little unorthodox, but it's one that warms my heart.

I met my fabulous husband in the military, and he had two daughters that were seven and four.

I had, a son who was three.

And when we got married, this was after I got out of the Air Force.

We had our own child, so we called it his, hers and ours.

And then about seven years ago, we became foster parents to one of my son's, best friends who survived the car accident that killed his parents.

He was a junior, just finishing his junior year in high school, and he didn't have any relatives in the United States, even though he was born in the U.S. and his options were to be sent to China to be raised by relatives he hadn't seen in a long time, or to go into foster care.

And I would have nothing of that.

So David joined our family, and so now it's his, hers, ours.

And a bonus.

Oh that's amazing.

That's wonderful.

That.

Yeah, that you did that and opened up your home.

So that must be very rewarding.

People always say, oh, you were such a blessing to David.

And I always remind them, no, he was a blessing to us.

And that was an everybody wins.

Oh, wonderful.

Wonderful.

So you got to Texas via the Air Force.

Did.

Tell me about, that trip your father, your grandfather was a pilot.

Your uncle was also a pilot.

Were you destined to be a pilot?

I believe that serving was in my DNA.

My grandfather was one of the first, five B-29 pilots in the Army Air Corps.

And my great uncle flew the B-24, also in World War II, who and uniquely, Admiral Rickover, who was a full admiral in the Navy.

He married into my family, and he was a big part of my life growing up.

I didn't see him often, but he always when they came to town, he always took a special interest in me.

And he would ask me to play my violin for him.

He wanted to know I was studying in school, and when I told him that my guidance counselor had suggested that I look into attending a service academy, he said, and the Navy's not ready for you yet.

No Air force.

And he was right.

He actually died when I was in basic training, and, I just felt like he saw that the whole way through.

And I was really, really proud to continue my family's, the lineage of service.

Other than the fact that your family were pilots.

I mean, when did that dream first come to fruition?

Or come to be that you thought, oh, I want to I want to be up in the skies.

I'm a flaming Sagittarius and I like adventure, and I like fun, and I love travel.

And I was good in math and science, and I was an athlete and my guidance counselor, who had been the wife of a state senator.

She was familiar with service academies because I went to an all girls Catholic high school, and most of them had traditional pathways for college.

But the guidance counselor felt like maybe I needed something.

A little different.

And she was right.

And I didn't see myself being an engineer working in a lab.

I needed some, I needed applied math and science.

And so, having the opportunity to learn how to fly jet sounded really awesome.

And I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to do that.

Okay, but you don't just fly them.

You were also a member of the Thunderbirds.

That just blows me away.

I mean, what I've seen, the shows are just fantastic.

What goes into that, what kind of training, you know, goes into doing those kinds of performances?

I was the executive officer for the team.

So there were 12 officers.

I was number ten.

That was my callsign.

That's a good number to have as a woman, by the way.

I was grateful I wasn't number two anyway.

The first, the one through six are the pilots that you see flying in the demonstration.

Number seven was our, he was a pilot, but he was not in the flying, arena for the shows.

And same for number eight.

Number nine was our flight surgeon.

Then I was ten, 11 was maintenance, 12 was public affairs.

So all of us who are not flying in the demonstration, we had other roles.

And one of my biggest jobs was to be the acting commander.

When the team was on the road.

And occasionally I would travel with the team, but it was more in a public relations capacity because it was important to show women, who were serving in the military as officers, as well as the wonderful enlisted women as well.

So I cannot speak to, flying in the demonstration.

But one of the perks of the job was, the F-16, which is what the Thunderbirds fly, is a single seat fighter jet, but there are some two seaters available, and that's typically used for training.

And that's what number seven and number eight flew for their different purposes.

And so sometimes for maintenance they would put a two seater up during practice.

And so I got to fly in the back seat of all the Thunderbird positions when we would practice, at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Even though I wasn't flying the jet myself, I did get a front row seat to what went on.

And to answer your question about what it took during the training season, they would fly upwards of three times a day.

It was exhausting and they would start far apart.

And then as they got more proficient, they would bring the formation closer and closer and closer together until they were doing everything seamlessly.

I was just for comparison when I learned how to fly the T-38 information at about 300 knots, I would be 3 to 5ft away from another aircraft.

And I thought that was close when I was in the back.

So even a F-16, during a training mission with the Thunderbirds, sometimes they had 18in of wingtip clearance.

When the diamond, the four jets would fly together.

And I tried really hard to keep my mouth shut because I was like, isn't that too close?

But I knew they didn't want to hear that for me.

But it was pretty amazing.

Okay, I know when I'm driving with someone as a passenger and I'm like, reaching to hold on to my mom, putting your arm out.

What do you hold on to exactly?

Oh my lord, that is just really exciting.

So I think that one of the neatest things about being on the Thunderbirds was the in that PR capacity.

I was told that I was the steward of the suit and I took that very seriously.

People didn't come to meet and people came to meet Thunderbird ten, and I got to sign lots of autographs.

And little kids would ask, well, how do you get to be a Thunderbird?

I said, try hard in school and listen to your parents and, you know, dream big.

And the parents were always like, thank you for saying that.

And by virtue of serving on the team, I helped pave the way for other women to come be on the Thunderbird team.

And subsequent to my time on the team and several years later, the the Congress had rescinded the combat exclusion rule.

And there were women in the military flying fighter jets, and they were accruing enough hours to be competitive for a slot.

And, I'm really proud of the first woman, Nicole Markowski, her callsign spiffy.

And, when she started, you know, that all eyes were on her and they did a great job choosing someone who was excellent because she demonstrated what true professionals can do.

And it doesn't matter who you are, where you came from.

Just do the job.

Simple.

So.

And tell me about how you got to San Antonio.

Well, the first time I lived in San Antonio, I was a young lieutenant serving at Brooks Air Force Base.

After I went to pilot training, the Air Force sent me to graduate school at UT.

And, I combined my experience flying and going through the program with my graduate degree to help the Air Force design testing to, select the characteristics, skills, abilities that predicted success and pilot training.

Because if you watch out of pilot training, it's very expensive to the Air Force and it's hard for that person's career.

So we were trying to figure out what we could screen for early to let the right people go.

And so that was really interesting for me.

And from Brooks Air Force Base, I also accepted a special duty assignment to serve at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I was the officer in charge of linguist operations, and I helped 45,000, Cuban migrants and 15,000 Haitian migrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. by running, 180, I had 180 linguists reporting to me, and our job was to make sure that the people who were working at Guantanamo Bay had the translation skills available, so that if someone needed soap or medical attention, we could help them.

And that was fascinating work.

And also it was it felt so good to help that many people.

Incredible.

So how did you end up getting involved with the HemisFair Conservancy?

That's, that's a huge role.

You played a huge role in the opening of Civic Park at HemisFair.

Phase one, I think opened in September of 2023.

Phase two just opened last month.

A new plaza, a new promenade.

It's just incredible.

And I know you're no longer with the organization, but you.

You.

I'm a donor.

I'm still involved with you.

Did lay the groundwork for all of this.

And you were involved in the early preparations.

Tell me about that experience.

And I did help with that.

After I got out of the Air Force, I was staying home with young children, and I loved doing that.

But the service piece was missing for me, and so I got involved with a lot of nonprofits.

And my joke is that if people find out you were an Air Force officer, you end up as president of everything, whether you meant to or not.

I mean, I was just happy to look envelopes or whatever people needed, but they're like, what are you as a leader?

Yeah, they're like, why don't you just run this on?

Okay.

So by virtue of doing that, I had the privilege of working with a lot of exceptional CEOs and executive directors, and I just learned by osmosis, by being an engaged board member and eventually got to the point where, I did some consulting in the philanthropic space.

But as much as grant giving is rewarding, I actually really like, I like to seek funding.

I like being a matchmaker between people who have philanthropic intent and a mission that's worthy.

And so that I did a lot of that in town before I started doing it professionally.

I was the development, chair at the Southwest School of Art.

And I had a wonderful woman on my committee named Andy Rodriguez, whom a lot of people know and love.

And so Antonio, she's wonderful.

And she says, and I have this idea for you.

And I thought it was for this volunteer work we're doing.

She goes, no, I have a job for you.

I'm like, I'm not looking for a job.

She goes, you need to talk to my friend, undress.

And that was Andre's under her, and he was the CEO of the HemisFair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation.

He just retired after 14 years of service.

So he's an architectural engineer.

His vision is everything behind the transformation of the 1968 World's Fair site into an incredible urban space.

You know, where people can work, live and play.

And it draws the San Antonio community together.

But architectural engineers are not typically amazing fundraisers.

And he knew that there was going to be city funding involved.

But what they what they didn't appreciate until they were a couple of years into the redevelopment of HemisFair, was that they needed philanthropy also.

And so that was the connection of the dots between Andy Andres and me.

And so Andres hired me to set up the HemisFair Conservancy, which is the philanthropic arm of the HemisFair project.

And so he and I were executive partners.

His vision set the tone for what we needed to raise funds for, and I was so proud to work with him for over ten years.

I remember when you won a garden open to the public in 2015.

It was received beautifully by the community with such appreciation.

Civic Park is uncommonly beautiful.

I had this wonderful epiphany once when I was in the first phase of, Civic Park, and we're having a large music, concert, and I turned around and I looked at thousands of people on their blankets, on chairs, listening to music on a beautiful night, living their best lives.

And I mean it.

It brought tears to my eyes.

I was like, wow, I'm proof of concept.

This is exactly what we wanted to do for the community.

And as someone who comes from Chicago, I saw what Millennium Park did for Chicago.

People don't go to Chicago without going to Millennium Park and enjoying all it has to offer.

And I was privileged to have a as a minor role, but an important role in helping shape hemisphere's future.

It was a real privilege.

It takes a special skill, for fundraising.

I, I do a little bit of fundraising here and there with some of the journalism organizations that I'm involved in.

And I often tell people, you know, the trick is not take no for an answer.

Well, there's a difference between no, never and no, not now.

So if it's a no, never.

You have to you have to honor that.

But if sometimes the timing's not right, or maybe it's not the right thing.

I think relationship is at the heart of fundraising.

You have to listen to the good that people want to do in the world, and you figure out where that matches up with the mission that you are all about.

And if you find that alignment, then you keep talking and you dig deeper.

You know, what kind of investment would you like to make and what kind of impact would you like to make if you're like, no, I'm just not that into you.

It's okay.

You can still have a relationship with them.

It's just maybe not one that's going to take a gift to the next level.

That's wonderful.

And I bet that one of the things that helps you is, you've just got this big personality.

You were recently, featured in San Antonio magazine, which is owned by Hearst or newspaper.

And I was just so impressed you were part of a panel.

Dream big.

It was so much fun to participate in that.

What a great inaugural event it was.

It was incredible.

And you were a piece of it.

I really enjoyed your story.

What really came across was your joy, your commitment, your enthusiasm for your current job.

Texas 2036, which is, to put it simply, preparing for our future.

That's that's probably the best synopsis I ever heard, because it is a little meaty.

It is very meaty.

And so I do want to get into into those details, a little bit.

But I mean, what you've said was that, you know, we need to prepare.

There's and we welcome all new Texans.

I think you said yes, but we have to prepare for that influx because they're not going to bring all the they're not going to bring their own water.

They're not going to bring their own teachers.

And I'm quoting you here, I love it when people heard what I said and they repeated in their own words, that brings me joy is the message resonated.

Thank you.

So, but tell us, tell, our audience here, because we do go to every everywhere.

So South Texas, tell us exactly what is Texas, 2036 and how do you go about preparing for our future?

Oh, I cannot wait to tell you.

So, I think the the I'm trying not to make it too meaty, because I know that policy can be a little overwhelming, especially for people like me who are not policy experts.

But I love Texas.

And so by starting with this position of we all love Texas and we want the best for Texas and Texans, here we go.

So we are a nonprofit, nonpartisan, non-ideological, data driven policy research and implementation organization.

And that's like, wow, that's a lot of words.

We are not what we are not we are not a policy think tank.

Our CEO, David Lee Brown, is very careful to point that out, because a lot of times what a think tank will do is they will write a study like academics will, and they put it on it, they hope it gets published and they put it on a shelf, and there may not be any action going forward.

We are all about action.

We have one client that is 30 million Texans and the millions more who are coming, and all we want to do is improve their lives and increase their opportunities.

So I run the the development side.

So I have a team of people.

We are we are fueled solely by philanthropy.

And so my team's job is to raise funds for that mission.

But where the work gets done is in Austin, where we have a policy team and we also have a data team that spread, between Houston and Austin.

And we identify issues that are facing Texans that could impede our sustainable growth.

And we from from the data, we help develop policy solutions that we then share with policymakers and their staffers so that they have the facts.

When they're making decisions.

So a piece of legislation that we are very proud to be associated with was House Bill eight, which passed in 2023 and HB eight was all about reforming community college finance, because what we want is when someone graduates from community college, you get a little piece of paper saying, you graduated, but we want something more than that.

So we were able to get 700, just under $700 million, for HB eight incentives to community colleges.

So they graduate, students with a credential of value.

So in addition to that piece of paper, they are Hvac experts, or they are an auto mechanic or they're a welder.

And what it does is a credential of value, then plugs you immediately into the workforce so that you can earn a living wage and sustain your family without ever needing public assistance.

The majority of the jobs that are going to be available in the future are going to require some kind of post-secondary education, and we are trying to provide incentives for students and colleges to get people prepared for the workforce.

So our work is not just education.

We call it education and workforce because one leads to the other.

That's wonderful.

So what is it like when, to work with the legislature?

How do you how do you get your, your issues in front of them and get them to do something like passing SBA because it's very complicated these days, to pass legislation, bipartisan legislation.

We have 34 people on our team, and just under half of them are on what we call our policy team.

Every single one of those people, oh my gosh, they're brilliant.

First of all, I mean, I walk in and and the average IQ drops a few points, but they are a bunch of recovered attorneys for the most part.

And they all have capital experience.

So for instance, our senior vice president of policy and advocacy, he used to work for the governor, whereas we have another senior policy advisor who's worked for Democratic relationships.

So we have relationships across the aisle, and we check our personal ideology at the door.

And if data is compelling and there's a policy solution from that, we share that education with the staffers and the policymakers so that when it comes time to make a decision, they have the facts that they need.

We're to the point now where they're calling us saying, what do you know about this?

And you know, they're going to go off and make their own decision.

That is their purview.

But at least they know that we can be a trusted resource.

And so I think the the differentiation for us is the fact that we're data driven and the fact that our policy team has such deep relationships at the Capitol, and they truly know how to get business done in 2023.

My teammates were very instrumental in getting a $1 billion Texas water fund passed to address our aging infrastructure and our water supply issues, but we identified over 140 billion in need over the next several decades.

So 1 billion, while significant, is a literal and figurative drop in the bucket, right?

So the way the team works is they brought they helped bring this to the forefront to get that initial water fund set up with the idea that we're iterative and we're going to keep that conversation going.

So after the 2023, 2023 legislature, let us that legislative session was over.

They continue their work talking to the staffers in the interim.

And and when we were, getting ready for the 2025 legislative session, we were delighted to to know that water was the governor's number one issue.

So these these decisions are not made on a whim or overnight.

They are built very strategically.

And we're in alignment with, all kinds of policymakers because everyone recognizes that water supply and water infrastructure are critical to our, sustainability as a successful state.

We know that here in San Antonio.

Yes, water is critical.

The common thread I see in the work you did with the Conservancy and now with, Texas 2036, is this both were about trying to make our future better for the generations to come.

Why is that so important to you?

And when I was at the Air Force Academy, we had to memorize quotes all the time.

And there was one that really struck me and it was there is no limit to the good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.

I love working on things where you don't have to know who I am.

I want things that are going to blast people long after I'm gone, and I'm really driven by that.

And that's why HemisFair was so great.

You know, that's going to be there for generations, long after I depart this earth.

And, paving the way for millions more Texans.

That's just it's just important to me.

And, I also and there is also another thread to this, and I was approached a few times about running for office, and I felt guilty saying no, because I didn't feel like that was the right thing for me and my family.

But I do have this desire to serve.

And so when this Texas 2036 opportunity came up, I was like, the mission was there for me.

I was like, wow, this is really important work.

I could throw myself into this and I can do more good this way than I could if I ran for office, in my opinion.

So the way I explained it to my husband when I got excited about this, I'm like, this opportunity allows me to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people while I still have mojo.

So what Texas 2036 is trying to accomplish?

That takes a lot of money and we've talked about your prowess in fundraising.

How much money are we talking about here?

My goal this year, my team's goal is approximately $13 million.

With an eye on the prize of becoming a $15 million organization by the next legislative session.

That will allow us to bring on more experts, data and outreach and policy so that we can tackle even more issues for Texans.

Sometimes people think that we get money from the state.

That is not true.

We are completely fueled by philanthropy and a mix of individual donors, corporations and foundations.

Thank you and thank you, Nora.

It's been a pleasure.

Thank you for joining us.

If you have any thoughts to share about this show or a suggestion for a future guest, email us at Texas Talk at KLRN.

org Until then, I'm Nora Lopez.