"Heather" Carrie Evelyn Menger

Independent Write-in Candidate for Commissioner of the General Land Office

Question: What is your age?

Answer: 47

Q: What is your educational background? Please list any degrees or certificates earned and any institutions attended.

A: Howdy! My name is Carrie Evelyn Menger, PhD, and I grew up becoming familiar with the oil and gas and agricultural industries, outside of La Grange, Texas, learning about mineral leases and participating in 4-H and FFA. I was an officer in both organizations having wholesome experiences raising chickens, cattle, and swine for breeding, selling, and showing. I played clarinet, contra-bass clarinet, and tuba in the La Grange High School Marching Band! La Grange, Texas Public High School was a powerful educational contribution to my life. I graduated 4th out of a class of 88 students and earned several scholarships, one applied to Southwest Texas State University at San Marcos, Texas. At Texas State University – formerly, SWT, I assisted Dr. Dana M. Garcia in Bluegill Sunfish retinal epithelium research before earning a Baccalaureate degree in Biology with cum laude, Golden Key, Who’s Who, and Tri-Beta honors. Next, I earned a Doctoral degree in Biology from Texas A&M University (TAMU) being mentored by Drs. David Earnest and Vincent Cassone with interim tenure as a BRAIN Research Fellow at the University of Houston, Houston, Texas. My doctoral degree specializations in Neuroscience and Informatics, with help from Drs. Gregory Cahill, Susan Golden, Mark Zoran, Rajesh Miranda, Thomas McKnight, and Joseph R. Koke, facilitated successful partnerships yielding peer-reviewed articles in Physiological Genomics, Visual Neuroscience, and Mechanisms of Development, a thesis dissertation, and a cross-genomic temporal gene expression metadata suite archived in the Gene Expression Omnibus at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Through community outreach, Insurance brokerage, and small house building, I earned education through experience and continued coursework acquiring knowledge of securitizations and real property conveyances with certifications in Business Ethics, Long-term Care, Medicare Advantage Programs, Health Maintenance Organizations, Flood Insurance, Annuities, Anti-money Laundering Policy, and General Life Insurance. Continued education certifications in Real Estate Principles, Real Estate Finance, Texas Contract Law, Texas Law of Agency, and Real Estate Promulgated Forms in partial fulfillment of State of Texas Real Estate licensure provide additional credentialing of expertise useful in service as Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. Experts, good lessons, hard work and studies, manifold, taught me well the skills for leadership, future problem solving, and fiduciary capacity.

Q: What is your occupation?

A: Biology, Informatics, Real Estate, and Ranching are occupations through contracted-employment and self-employment. My cash basis income is earned at risk and is subject to market cycles and perceptions. I am in a position that is sometimes vulnerable to scrutiny by authorities to diminish a good agenda of 1) positive land management and innovative educational and environmental reforms, 2) real future problem solving and 3) honest accountability to Texans and foreign neighbors. I am okay with scrutiny because I have no skeletons in my closet, and I disclose material facts when necessary and in good faith. I am not boasting; I'm at peace as my competitors can no longer make me go away. My hands are wrinkled more than my mothers and I am half her age. Within one year after graduation from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, my student debt was paid through my self-employment. I try to pay more self-employment taxes each year but this past filing year, my accounting was $700 deficient. I do not have a problem remedying this deficiency because it is SE Tax - a tax necessary in helping sustain my elders' wellness through the OASDI and Medicare programs. Most of my income is derived from real estate investments, cattle and forage production, and other agribusiness endeavors. My mother Carol Menger and my Realtors Kristy and Randy Wages and Saundra McCulloch are sometimes lifesavers, even though a couple of us are not the best of friends anymore. A Realtor is a fiduciary - a beautiful and humble conceptualization that I will take to heart each day in service at the Texas Land Office. I will move forward with projects in Science, Education, and the Humanities to enjoy life more in a New Life in Texas - helping other Texans greater realize their Manifest Destinies through our Texas treasures managed in part by the General Land Office and its new Commissioner, Carrie Evelyn Menger, PhD.

Q: If you are a business owner, please list the business or businesses that you own. (If this question is not applicable, please note that below.)

A: I have founded several businesses into which I have invested components of capital, resource, labor, and management and through entrepreneurial risk, incentive, and experience have elevated my capacity to own and manage land and livestock. While recently I have curtailed my activities in some of these Schedule C and F enterprises for personal reasons and for professional ethics, I can list these cash basis, at risk, businesses as follows:

Penelope Elite Chicken Klub - P.E.C.K.;

GM Ranch Feedlot;

Scimod Agribusiness and Restoration;

Centaurides Menger Strategic Investments; and

the former Insurance Intermediates of Texas.

Q: Please list any civic boards or commissions (non-profit, government, union, political, etc.) on which you have served as a board member or equivalent.

A: I served as an FFA and a 4-H Officer while a student at La Grange Public High School.

Q: Have you previously held or do you currently hold any elected office? If so, what office(s)?

A: As an FFA Officer while a student at La Grange Public High School, I served as Chapter Sentinel, Treasurer, and President, participating actively in livestock and mechanical projects and assisting other FFA members with their livestock projects in selection and handling.

Q: If your campaign has any online campaign resources where voters can learn more about you, such as social media accounts or a website, please list them below.

A: The Carrie Evelyn Menger Campaign for Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office employs several on-line resources to reach out to Texas voters and to communicate WHY Dr. Carrie Evelyn Menger, Carrie at Center, is the best candidate for Texas General Land Office superintending and directing. These resources include:

A) Website # 1 - https://www.electmenger.com;

B) Website # 2 - https://www.HeatherCarrie4GLO.org;

C) YouTube video # 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MjEWG763QQ; and

D) Twitter Account: # 1 - www.Twitter.com; Username: @HeatherMenger.

Two sustainable websites are being developed for my campaign to secure independent lines of communication with the voting public. The first website, www.electmenger.com, is being developed and hosted by Web Unlimited of College Station, Texas and the second website at www.HeatherCarrie4GLO.org is being designed by AppNet New Media Studio of North Carolina. Each firm has wide-ranging talent and expertise in graphic arts and fully customizable website design and development with inclusion of analytics and current and emerging interactive enterprising technology.

Q: Why did you decide to run for this office in 2022?

A: Carrie Evelyn Menger's Answer: Public Service in State Office is an honorable profession requiring practical knowledge of how to correctly and appropriately execute the duties of the Office to achieve broad and sometimes specific goals within and across relevant jurisdictions through careful, diligent, and wise use of resources, programs, and personnel in fulfillment of agency relationships among all relevant levels of state and federal governments to best serve our public stakeholders, domestic and foreign, within the frameworks of State Statutes, Common Law, the State of Texas Constitution and applicable Laws and Acts of the United States of America. Carrie Evelyn Menger is preparing to serve you and the State of Texas Governor Greg Abbott in the capacity as Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office for at least the next four years. Why? She supports Education and Protecting the Environment while creating positive cash flow from state-owned assets through partnerships, business incentives, and new corridors that promote growth AND adherence to high standards of stewardship. She requires a continuation of current high-quality benefits for Texas Veterans and Military Service men and women through the Veterans Land Board AND new VA-affiliated lending programs to help these Texans improve properties purchased in infrastructure-deficient zones. Understanding how "a C-grade on the Texas infrastructure report card," according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, will choke the Texas economy and its potential for new opportunities and contracts, underscores Dr. Menger's initiatives to replenish and grow vital improvements to meet the demands of a booming Texas population while more broadly distributing community property tax liabilities. In support of the State's Governor Greg Abbott and his policies showing reasonable intentions, Carrie Evelyn will serve - and Governor Abbott is like me, "Heather" Carrie Evelyn, in that he, too, is resourceful and bold, hardworking and reliable and experienced in meeting challenges when they are presented. I meet challenges head on but with study and preparation. When will the next one come? Carrie will solve. Carrie Evelyn Menger has served in the Bureau of Economics and Statistics, Department of Commerce, intermittently over the past ten years. And she will apply her experience and skill sets in addressing important problems impacting education, the environment and our ecologies, housing, the energy-power sector, infrastructure-deficiencies, and veteran's benefits. Texas will endure. Friendship is our foundation for Innovation - it is our motto.

Q: If elected, what will be your top three priorities in office?

A: Dr. Carrie Evelyn Menger's Answer: I have a genuine, caring desire to help address the concerns of Texas, to solve problems, and to assist in areas of Texas government and superintending that best apply my skills in Biology and Informatics, Ranching and Land Management, Real Estate, Fiduciary Representation, and Leadership. I prefer to be a team facilitator rather than a "Big Boss" and I know this requires sacrifice. As Commissioner of the General Land Office, I must always be accountable to high standards of Ethics scrupulously applied in and out of the Office. In maintaining an ethical Office, one having no improprieties that may compromise reasonable expectations of good character and excellent service to stakeholders, my management of State of Texas resources, cash flows, legacies, and treasures will follow the noble ideals that define Texas and that best serve our Texas futures to the best of my ability each day. What does this mean? My best each day is to afford the best for Texas schoolchildren, our Veterans and Military Service men and women, our state-energy-power sector partnerships, and the very important Texas General Land Office personnel in Austin, Texas and throughout the state, including personnel at that three-league line, over our Texas submerged lands, that get soaked. Guided by Texas Administrative Codes, the Texas Natural Resource Codes, and good principles, my leadership will also serve Texas to preserve our treasured historical legacies and environmental areas - ecosystems and food webs. The General Land Office will be a sentinel for Units of Life so important in Texas Ecology - a Biologist is dedicated to preserving and understanding life. I will be loyal and obedient to my colleagues and principles in pursuit of these and other high-aspirational goals that benefit our coastal resources while improving standard operating procedures to effect high-quality informatics, archiving, asset management service and partnership development. My TOP THREE PRIORITIES will be 1) SUPPORTING, MAKING SAFER, AND IMPROVING TEXAS EDUCATION, 2) UNDERSTANDING AND PRESERVING BETTER OUR ENVIRONMENTAL TREASURES AND OUR TEXAS COASTAL BIOME, AND 3) EXTENDING BEYOND CURRENT VETERANS LAND BOARD FACILITIES NEW PROGRAMS THAT HELP TEXAS VETERANS IMPROVE INFRASTRUCTURE-DEFICIENT ZONES TO BUILD NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS THAT MORE BROADLY STIMULATE RURAL ECONOMIES AND BETTER DISTRIBUTE TAX LIABILITY.

Q: What is an issue you believe has gone overlooked in your race and how will you address it if elected?

A: Dr. Carrie Menger's Answer: Four persistently under-examined areas of Texas government that have gone unimproved too long include 1) deficiencies in the application of policies affecting school safety and the procedural handling of school safety incidents, even in consideration of Texas School Safety Center guidelines, 2) the inclusion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics curricula in our Texas schools to make our high-school graduates more competitive abroad and applicable in national service, 3) funding accessibility for preparedness and the mitigation and restoration of damaged infrastructure and damaged homes and lives resulting from disaster storms, and 4) infrastructure-deficient zones where lands could be developed at a basic level to help meet the need for new homes to keep pace with the Texas population boom. To ensure that no school is too small to be safe and competitive or too large be socially-inclusive and bully-free, the General Land Office should through graduated Permanent School Fund disbursements to Texas Public Schools, require the provision of protectors in school facilities, the instruction of STEM-career focused courses for degree plan fulfillments, and the inclusion of contemporary social skills education. Furthermore, through the creation of the Innovations and Secure Infrastructure Bank that would be domiciled in the General Land Office, local emergency management efforts in municipalities and counties vulnerable to hurricanes and disaster storms will have direct transactional access to money when it is needed and NOT dependent upon the politics of state and / or federal disaster declarations. With this semi-autonomy, earned through ALL-HAZARD MITIGATION PLANNING AND PREPARDNESS, local governments will more independently help home and business owners and local responders, and through planning by precinct and county emergency managers, better afford necessary pre- and post-response supply, repair, and restoration costs. The Innovations and Secure Infrastructure Bank will also serve instrumentally in the subsidizing of the conversion of storm-damaged overhead and above ground electrical grid systems to subsurface facilities to eliminate the need for repairs brought about by future disaster storms. Funding this bank through a thrift savings and lending configuration with hazard planning requirements for each dedicated precinct and / or county account will help establish continuity between funding improvements and funding preparedness, making the Innovations and Secure Infrastructure Bank a cost-efficient facility that incentivizes modern growth with planning and preparedness in mind. Initially, asset- and capital-based collateralization would be necessary to underwrite each local government account until accounts become self-sustaining in part from federal and state agency funding pipelines, i.e., FEMA, and accumulated savings derived from improved planning, preparation, and education that collectively better mitigate each subsequent peril.

Q: Do you have any notable endorsements you would like to highlight for voters? If so, please list them here.

A: Carrie's Answer: My mother Carol Menger is my most important endorser. She is a life-long rancher and is sharp as a snap. Otherwise, I am just starting to seek endorsements through one-on-one meetings and question and answer forums. I have mentioned the idea of a live televised debate among the Texas Land Commissioner candidates, myself included, to a KAGS TV executive. He liked the idea. Debate discussion of the issues impacting Texas and the facilitation of solutions through the various candidate options available, in their different management and operational perspectives, better provides members of the voting public useful insight to consider in their choosing of the CORRECT CANDIDATE to endorse, either privately or through associations.

Q: Why are you the best candidate for voters to support for this position?

A: Dr. Carrie Menger's Answer: Organizational, communicative, and principled leadership skills are very important in establishing and managing a General Land Office that cost-efficiently uses its resources and assets to effect the best benefits for stakeholders through sincerest of efforts. The bureaucratic management style normally intended for well delineated personnel duties and functions may be reconfigured organizationally tying together experience and team networking to enlighten workflow dynamics, to cross-train, and to more flexibly apply new management solutions. Communication with state and federal agencies and with the public must be done clearly and concisely, objective-focused, while defining any parameters that qualify the discussions, where allowed. Inviting criticism, scrutiny, and suggestions from personnel and the public is part of leadership accountability and this feedback process is so critical for identifying areas needing improvement and areas predominantly successful. Maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce that lives out, through service at the General Land Office, wholesome core values to meet and exceed the duties of the Office will be my mission. Being guided by the rules of Law, where core values are not compromised, and to ethically serve to the best benefit of Texas are our highest-aspirational goals. Through the Texas General Land Office, schools, veterans and military service men and women and our Texas environment and energy-power-resource partnerships will be assisted through my capacities as Commissioner. I will work hard, every day, to realize goals and initiatives that solve major problems in Texas - serving and managing faithfully, proactively, and respectfully.