With both legislative experience and a background in political reporting, Mitzie brings perseverance, a sharp eye for detail, a fair and balanced outlook, and enthusiasm for state politics to the firm.
Mitzie literally had a front row seat on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives during the 81st Legislative Session. As a member of the House Journal clerk's team, she gained invaluable insight on state political issues and the legislative process, while keeping track of all floor action for the compilation of the House’s official record of proceedings. She was omnipresent for the long hours and late nights on the House floor action.
Prior, Mitzie was a reporter with the daily newspaper serving New Braunfels, Texas, The Herald-Zeitung. She not only covered the heated race between then-New Braunfels Mayor Doug Miller and then-State Rep. Nathan Macias, R- Bulverde, which came down to a mere 17-vote difference, but had the chance to cover the 2008 Austin Democratic Debate between then- U.S. Senators Barack Obama, D- Illinois, and Hillary Clinton, D- New York, and rallies for candidates U.S. Senator John McCain, R- Arizona, and U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, R-Texas. Mitzie is most proud of an article outlining budget issues jeopardizing CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Central Texas located in New Braunfels. The publicity from her article resulted in an outpouring of donations from the community, which ultimately saved the non-profit organization from having to close its doors.
She earned a Master’s Degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois in Springfield, Illinois. She is grateful for having been accepted out of nationwide pool of hopefuls into the university’s small, exclusive PAR program that counts former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino as one of its graduates. The educational experience included a session internship in the statehouse press corps for The Small Newspaper Group, in which Mitzie wrote for a chain of newspapers in Illinois with a combined circulation of over 120,000.
Mitzie graduated with a degree in history from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where she was a reporter for The Purdue Exponent, the nation’s largest student-run newspaper, and interned with the city newspaper, The Journal and Courier.
She recently began volunteer editing for the blog, “365 Things to do in Austin, Texas,” which has over 300, 000 unique views a day, over 145,000 fans on Facebook, and has been featured on Forbes.com and in Austin Monthly, as well as various other websites and publications. She is also a volunteer for the Capital Area Food Bank, and a member of both the Young Women’s Alliance of Austin and the Purdue Alumni Association of Austin.
Mitzie originally hails from Springfield, Illinois, but eagerly made her home in Texas’ capital after visiting and falling in love with the city’s live music, food, constant events and entertainment, beautiful landscape, warm weather and the all-around “Austin vibe.”
As the saying goes, she wasn’t born in Texas, but she got here as fast as she could.