State Senator to Lecture on Leadership in Public Life

by Lauren Venegas, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805

Baylor University's Academy for Leader Development and Civic Engagement will host state Sen. Royce West from 6 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 7, in the Banquet Room on the fifth floor of Cashion Academic Center in the Hankamer School of Business on the Baylor campus. West is the third speaker in the Leadership Lecture Series for the fall semester with a presentation on Leadership in Public Life.

West was elected to the as State Senate for District 23 (Dallas County) in January 1993.
In April 2006, West was sworn in by his fellow state senators to serve as President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate. As President Pro Tempore, West was second in the line of succession to be Governor of Texas, and assumed the top leadership position whenever Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst were out of the state.
West is chairman of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee and is a member of the Senate's Committees on Education, Finance, Health and Human Services, the Higher Education Subcommittee and the Joint Select Committee on Operation and Management of the Texas Youth Commission. He also serves on the Education Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) and the standing committee on Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce of the National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL). In April 2005, Gov. Perry appointed West to the Education Commission of the States.
West currently serves on the following boards and commissions:
? Circle Ten Executive Committee - Boy Scouts of America
? Dallas County Democratic Party - Finance Council
? NAACP - Life Member
? National Bar Association
For 15 years, West has sponsored the Dr. Emmett J. Conrad Leadership Program. The program has provided college students from Senatorial District 23 with paid employment in their respective fields of study. In 1996, he established a Student Advisory Committee (SAC) to obtain the perspectives of students on legislative issues and to expose them to volunteer opportunities in the community.
West also created "One Community-One Child," a parental involvement program at Julia C. Frazier Elementary School. The program is designed to increase the performance and attendance of students by eliciting the support of their parents or guardians as volunteers at least twice per semester without loss of pay.
Texas Monthly Magazine recently named Senator West as one of the 25 most powerful people in Texas politics.
The Leadership Lecture Series is aimed at introducing students to the variety and complexity of leadership needs in contemporary society. Each lecture focuses on one of the Academy's leadership concentrations: leadership and contemporary social issues, leadership in public life, leadership in the Church, and leadership through private enterprise.
The lecture is free and open to the public.