Texas Tidbits: Hunger Initiative’s new home

Regional Texas Hunger Initiative partners with Waco charity. The Waco regional office of Texas Hunger Initiative is now housed within Caritas of Waco, a 46-year-old nonprofit charitable agency. Floor plans for the recently completed renovation of the Caritas building at 300 S. 15th St. in Waco accommodate the addition of extra office space for such strategic partnerships, according to Caritas Executive Director Buddy Edwards. Caritas functions as a direct-service organization, providing food, assistance with utilities and other resources to people with urgent, immediate need in the Waco community. The Texas Hunger Initiative, developed within the Baylor University School of Social Work in cooperation with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, is a capacity-building organization, developing and implementing strategies to end hunger through policy, education, research, and community organizing at the state and local level.

Hukill named Wayland CFO. Lezlie Hukill has been named the chief financial officer at Wayland Baptist University, a position she filled on an interim basis since March, after Jim Smith was Lezlie Hukillsuspended from the post. Wayland dismissed Smith in April and filed suit against him for alleged financial mismanagement. Hukill is a graduate of the University of Texas and a certified public accountant with experience at Price Waterhouse in Austin and a private accounting firm in Plainview. She joined Wayland in July 2010 as university controller, overseeing day-to-day operations of the business office. She also served as supervisor for financial aid, human resources and the university store. Hukill previously worked for Wayland from 1994 to 2000. She and her husband, Kregg, a Plainview attorney, have three daughters.

Tucker named dean at HSU. Robert Tucker, who has been a dean at Howard Payne University since 2005, has been named dean of the College of Fine Arts at Hardin-Simmons University. Before he Robert Tuckerbecame dean of music, fine arts and extended education at Howard Payne, he was director of bands at the university in Brownwood. Previous experience includes service as band director with the Stanton Independent School District and assistant professor of horn and music education at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La. He is president-elect of the Texas Association of Music Schools and is the composer or arranger of more than 200 musical works. He earned his undergraduate degree in music at Hardin-Simmons, a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and a doctorate in fine arts from Texas Tech University. He and his wife, Clairissa, have three sons.

Baugh Foundation gives $1.5 million to UMHB. The Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation of Houston approved a $1.5 million grant as a lead gift for a new performing arts center at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Plans call for the venue to include a 600-seat performance hall suitable for large choral and theatrical productions. The grant is the most recent in a series of significant gifts the foundation has made to building projects at UMHB. In addition to gifts for the Parker Academic Center, the Frank and Sue Mayborn Campus Center, and the Paul and Jane Meyer Christian Studies Center, the foundation made the lead gift that led to construction of the Baugh Center for the Visual Arts, completed last year.  

Baylor, HSU recognized as great workplaces. For the third consecutive year, Baylor University was named to the honor roll of “Great Colleges to Work For,” an annual list compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Only 42 national universities received honor roll status. Hardin-Simmons University was listed among academic workplaces that achieved “Great Colleges to Work For” recognition for specific practices and policies. The results, released in The Chronicle’s sixth annual report on “The Academic Workplace,” are based on a survey of more than 44,000 employees at 300 colleges and universities.