Retired Highland Park ISD Superintendent Cathy Bryce, Ed.D., will soon join a select group of distinguished Texans to receive the Golden Deeds Award, considered the most coveted award in the field of Texas education and the highest recognition for distinguished service to education in the state.
The Texas A&M University Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource (EAHR) Development and the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) co-present the Golden Deeds Award each year to an individual from any profession who has, through actions and deeds, improved the educational system in Texas to enrich the lives of all Texas public school students. Recipients are nominated by a committee of school district superintendents from across Texas.
Bryce began her 33-year education career as a choir and English teacher, serving as a high school assistant principal, middle school principal, director of curriculum and instruction, and assistant and deputy superintendent on her path to becoming the superintendent of schools in both Weatherford ISD and Highland Park ISD. In 2000, she was Texas’ nominee for AASA National Superintendent of the Year Award.
“Cathy Bryce exemplified superior leadership in all of her administrative positions,” wrote her nominator. “Her performance in Weatherford and Highland Park ISDs as superintendent resulted in them becoming better places to work, and more important, better places for students to learn.”
Bryce was instrumental in the development of Creating a New Vision for Public Education, a document published in 2008 by the Public Education Visioning Institute, a group of 35 Texas school superintendents from across the state who came together to share ideas on how to transform Texas public education to meet the needs of 21st century students.
This work, as well as her role in the founding of N2 Learning’s Principals’ Institute, established in 2010 to help operationalize the Visioning Institute’s work, were key reasons Bryce was selected as this year’s Golden Deeds Award recipient by the 2019-20 Golden Deeds Award Committee.
Today Bryce continues to serve Texas public schools. As an investment banker for BOK Financial Securities, Inc., and as a consultant, she works with school districts around the state in areas of school finance, leadership, school board training and long-range planning.
She is the chairman of the Region 11 Education Service Center Board of Directors, a member of the University of North Texas Foundation Board of Directors, and she serves as vice chairman of the University of North Texas Alumni Association. Bryce also chairs the Advocacy Committee for the College of Education at the University of North Texas and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science and of the Kershaw’s Challenge Board of Directors. In addition, she is active in the Denton Benefit League, having served as president in 2015-16. She regularly volunteers for various community groups that serve people in need.
Bryce will receive the Golden Deeds Award at an awards luncheon at the Stella Hotel in Bryan, Texas, at 12 p.m., Nov. 13, 2019, during the Administrative Leadership Institute, a conference co-hosted by EAHR and Friends of Texas Public Schools.
EAHR is one of four departments in the College of Education and Human Development. It develops educational leaders and improves practice through teaching, research and service in the areas of public school administration, human resource development, higher education administration, adult education and student affairs administration.
TASA is the professional association for Texas school superintendents and other administrators. The mission of the organization, which focuses on professional learning, advocacy and member engagement, is to promote, provide and develop leaders who create and sustain student-centered schools and develop future-ready students.
