Selena Walsh
Chief Strategist
has more than twenty years in the political, legislative and non-profit arena. In Washington, D.C. she served as the Executive Director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and as the National Director of Policy and Communication for LULAC, where she twice testified before Congress. Returning to Texas, Selena served as the Executive Director for the Texas Senate Hispanic Caucus and the Interim ED for the Texas Senate Hispanic Caucus Institute. Selena has worked for and with elected officials at all levels of government helping turn policy interests into legislative agendas that unites stakeholders, invites collaboration and leads the resolution of highly complex issues. In 2003 Selena partnered with Clean Water Action to co-found Proyecto Buena Vista and Buena Vista Fund, a national program
dedicated to improving the education and outreach model for under-represented populations on the topic of environment. In 2008 Selena served as the first Director of Governmental Relations for Neighborhood Centers Inc. one of the largest non-profits in Texas where she won several achievement awards and recognition. In 2015 she served as the first female Director of Administration with the North American Development Bank (NADB) joining an international team playing a key role in its merger with the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC).
Selena turned to academics where she has directed, taught and served as an executive coach for the Executive Master in Public Leadership (EMPL) program at The University of Texas’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. Selena is a proud graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine where she is recognized as a “College Key” with an interdisciplinary degree in Social Culture Anthropology. She earned her MPAff degree as an Executive Master in Public Leadership program from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and was later selected by faculty to run the program.
Selena was born in Cuernavaca, Mexico and raised between Cuernavaca and Austin, TX; she is bilingual and bi-cultural.