Bruce Austin Bruce A. Austin is a native Houstonian from the Fifth Ward, where he attended Wheatley High School. Elected to the HCC Board of Trustees in 1989, Austin was chairman from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2000 to 2002. He served as deputy secretary of the Board in 2006. Austin served in the U.S. Navy for 10 years.

He also served in the United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, in the Office of Information Technology as well as in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Administration. Upon his return to Houston in 1984, he served as special assistant to Commissioner El Franco Lee and later as Harris County’s director of Housing and Community Development. Austin is a proud alumnus of Texas Southern University where he received a BA in political science, MPA in public administration and Juris Doctorate of Law.

He continued his quest for learning by engaging in further study through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and attended the Department of Agriculture Graduate School. Post-education studies included The Cambridge Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Community and Economic Development Program. Since 1986, Austin has dedicated himself to the art of teaching by serving as an adjunct professor in the graduate schools of the University of Houston – Clear Lake and Texas Southern University.

For six years, he served as director at-large, Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), Washington, DC; region director, Southwestern Region ACCT; and a member of the Joint Commission on Federal Relations. He is fairly conversational in French, Spanish and Tagalog. His awards and achievements include: past president, Houston Chapter of the American Society of Public Administration; recipient, National Performance Review Award from Vice President Al Gore; Western Region Trustee of the Year, Association of Community College Trustees and member, Pi Alpha Alpha National Honor Society for Public Affairs & Administration.