Board of Directors Spotlight: Lisa Williams

Lisa Williams is the President of Black Nurses Rock in Tyler. She is new the East Texas Food Bank Board of Directors and joined this summer.

Lisa recently graduated from Leadership Tyler and did a tour of ETFB in her class. She told us she was amazed at the operations and learned so much about how ETFB works to make sure every East Texan has access to the nutritious food and services they need. Lisa said, “I’m just a proud member of the East Texas Food Bank Board and I love it!”

Outside of her community work, Lisa loves to travel and read leadership and motivational books. Her favorite movie is Rocky because “he never gave up and that’s important!”

Board of Directors Spotlight: Jay Brooks

Jay Brooks is the Smith County Fire Marshal/Emergency Management Coordinator and joined the Board of Directors in July of 2020. Jay said he was inspired to join the board after working with ETFB during its COVID-19 emergency response.

“I was impressed with the operation and the number of people that are positively impacted by ETFB. Even during a pandemic, ETFB was able to pull together the necessary resources to aid a substantial increase in families who needed assistance due to the mandated shutdown. Food is a necessity of life and I wanted to do my part to help fulfill this mission,” Jay told us.

Outside of serving the community, Jay enjoys fishing, woodworking and computer programming. Fun fact: Jay is on his second career and worked in technology before.

Employee Spotlight: Bethany Bausell

Bethany started as a VISTA intern this summer and made such an impression that she was offered a position to stay with the East Texas Food Bank as a Senior Hunger Associate.

Day-to-day, Bethany handles record entry of distributions, working in the database and helps with direct distribution preparations for the Senior Box Program. Bethany said her favorite thing about working here is seeing her coworkers each morning and greeting them.

Outside of work, Bethany enjoys writing poetry, reading fiction and listening to music in different languages. A few unique facts about Bethany: her favorite genre of music is K-pop due to the meanings behind the songs and the choreography and she was adopted.

ETFB Employee Spotlight: Maureen Dobyns

Maureen is a receptionist and joined the East Texas Food Bank in February. Maureen said her favorite part of working here is getting to help people. She described how she can see and hear the worries people have when asking for help and added that she loves being the joyful voice to help them find the assistance they need.

Maureen is also bilingual and has been invaluable in helping us serve our neighbors who speak Spanish. Maureen learned to speak Spanish when she was living in Mexico for two years as a musician.

When she is not at work, Maureen continues her music by playing guitar and singing in church. She also like to draw and paint.