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Raise Your Hand Texas Launches Inaugural Community Leaders Fellowship, Empowering Local Teams to Advocate for Public Education

January 22, 2026  

AUSTIN, Texas — (Jan. 22, 2026) — Raise Your Hand Texas today announced the launch of its inaugural Community Leaders Fellowship, naming 32* grant awardees to its first cohort. As the premier program within the organization’s newly established Education Advocacy Academy, the Fellowship is the next evolution of the successful Trustee Advocates Program, expanding its reach to include a diverse coalition of community voices. 

The Community Leaders Fellowship is an 18-month program designed to equip local teams — composed of parents, educators, business leaders, and school trustees — with the tools and skills necessary to find, use and amplify their voices in state education policy.

“The Community Leaders Fellowship empowers Texans to become stronger public education leaders in their hometowns, directly shaping the future of their local school districts by engaging state lawmakers,” said Dr. Libby Cohen, executive director for Raise Your Hand Texas. “Public schools impact their entire communities. That means the work of advocating for public education in the Texas Capitol belongs to entire communities, as well. We’re excited these advocacy teams are stepping up to the challenge of bringing more hands to this important work.”

The program builds on the foundation of the Trustee Advocates Program, which launched in 2022. While the previous program focused on teams composed of school board members and superintendents, the Fellowship uses a unique collaborative model. Each team consists of seven to 10 participants, including at least three community members who are not school board trustees or district employees. This year’s Fellowship participants are comprised of school districts that have between 500 and 50,000 enrolled students, each with its own unique needs and concerns. Together, they all want to do more for their students and communities. 

The following school districts have been selected as Grant Awardees for Cohort 1 of the Raise Your Hand Texas Community Leaders Fellowship:

The Community Leaders Fellowship is issue-based and non-partisan. Through a mix of in-person, virtual, and self-paced sessions, these teams will develop a deep understanding of the legislative process and master the skills of community engagement and sustainable advocacy.

“Our goal is to build more and deeper relationships between local leaders and their communities, so that they can work together to identify what’s important to them with respect to public education,” said Amy Dodson, dean of advocacy for Raise Your Hand Texas. “This new model creates powerful local teams that can advocate for meaningful change for their students and teachers. We are especially proud to see a few alumni of our Trustee Advocates Program leading the charge in this deeper, community-based work.”

For more information about the program, visit https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/community-leaders-fellowship/.

*Jan. 27, 2026 Editor’s Note: Final agreements were signed by Chisum ISD, McKinney ISD, and Prairiland ISD after the announcement date and press release posting. These three ISDs have been added to the program cohort and the press release above has been updated to reflect the additions.

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About Raise Your Hand Texas

In 2006, Charles Butt and a group of Texas business and community leaders founded Raise Your Hand Texas with the belief that all Texas children should have equal access to high-quality education. Raise Your Hand Texas is working to create a vibrant civic culture where Texans vote, engage lawmakers and their neighbors, and act together to champion public education in their communities and at the state Capitol. For more information, visit raiseyourhandtexas.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Anne Lasseigne Tiedt, APR
atiedt@ryht.org, c: (512) 784-3805