Gov. Perry Appoints Riter and Phillips To Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today announced the appointment of A. W. “Whit” Riter, III, of Tyler and Lyn Bracewell Phillips, Ph.D., of Bastrop to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for terms to expire August 31, 2011. The board sets policies and coordinates efforts to improve Texas higher education.

Mr. Riter is president of the Riter Management Company, L. C. and The A.W. Riter Jr. Family Foundation and is being reappointed to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He also participates in numerous other community, business and educational organizations, including serving on the board of directors of Mercy Ships, the Tyler Health Facilities Development Corporation, the Regional East Texas Food Bank, the East Texas Food Bank Foundation, the East Texas Communities Foundation and the University of Texas at Tyler Foundation. Currently, he serves on the development boards for both the University of Texas at Tyler and the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler. Mr. Riter is also a member of the Texas Rose Festival Association. A graduate of Southern Methodist University, Riter received a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Phillips served from 2001 to 2005 as a member of the Commission on State Emergency Communications. She is a member of the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Commission, to which she was appointed by President George W. Bush. Phillips serves on the site-based committee of Bastrop High School, and is a founding member of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society and the Bastrop Education Fund. She served on the Board of Governors of Prescott College in Prescott, Ariz., and on a 2004 National Endowment for the Humanities Jury Panel. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Phillips received a doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a member of the faculties at UT-Austin, the University of Houston-Downtown and Rice University.