Founders’ Circle

Board Members

Beverly Bernzen
Beverly Bernzen, MSW, is a licensed clinical social worker with over 40 years of post-graduate experience. Mrs. Bernzen is a subject matter expert on Texas suicide prevention. She is passionate about preventing the tragic loss of life from suicide. 

Beverly trains other trainers. She is a Master Trainer in Texas for “AS+K? About Suicide to Save A Life” and C.A.L.M.—Counseling on Access to Lethal Means. She is board secretary for the Texas Suicide Prevention Collaborative. She also serves on the Texas Suicide Prevention Council Executive Committee. In 2008, Beverly founded the Mental Health Task Force of Brazoria County, a local suicide prevention coalition. 

Beverly owned the Family Resource Center counseling practice in Lake Jackson, TX from 2000-2021.  

She adds value to people’s lives by sharing important knowledge concerning mental health and wellness. 

Josette Saxton
Josette Saxton is a public policy specialist with more than 20 years of experience in informing and advancing state policies to promote children’s healthy development and well-being. She is a trusted voice within policy discussions related to children’s mental health at the legislature, with state agencies, and among advocacy groups. Josette has played a leading role in proposing and supporting the passage of legislation in Texas addressing mental health in schools, advancing youth suicide prevention, and improving services for children with complex mental health needs.

Josette has served on numerous state advisory bodies focused on children’s mental health and wellness, including holding leadership positions on the Statewide Behavioral Health Coordinating Council’s subcommittee on suicide prevention and the Health and Human Services Commission Behavioral Health Advisory Committee subcommittee on children and youth. She presently co-chairs the Texas Suicide Prevention Council. Josette directs a mental health policy academy to support a cohort of early-career policy professionals participating in the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health’s Policy Fellow program. Josette has a B.A. in psychology from West Chester University and a master’s in social work from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Margie Wright
After an extensive career in Child Protective Services, Margie Wright started her second career in 1999 as executive director of the Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas. In addition to administrative duties, she began her duties as the overall manager of the crisis line and the Survivors of Suicide programs that were in existence. Seeing a lack of services and outreach for adolescents, she sought out and developed a very comprehensive program through Columbia University called, at the time, TeenScreen. She and her staff were trained by university staff in 2002 to administer the program. In 2006, Columbia University awarded her the very first National Innovation Award for her work in the schools. By then, the Center had screened thousands of kids throughout the Dallas area. The program is now called Teens Can Survive and has expanded to include education and awareness training for students, parents, teachers, and other school staff.

Margie has given national presentations for TeenScreen (Columbia University) and for the American Association of Suicidology as well as state presentations for National Association of Social Workers. She often speaks to community groups on the issues of suicide. Additionally, she has been recognized by the Dallas County Commissioners for her work. She participated in the early work of developing the Texas State Plan for Suicide Prevention and has served on the Texas Suicide Prevention Council in many capacities, including as chair. Margie has served as chair of the board for several nonprofits in Dallas, including Mental Health America of Greater Dallas. She currently co-chairs the Greater Dallas Suicide Prevention Coalition. In August, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Suicide Prevention Council.

Nishi Viswanathan
Dr. Nishi Viswanathan is a medical doctor turned cancer researcher turned business leader. She is currently the head of commercialization and business development at Innovation Lab, a health technology company that partners with member-owner health systems to develop medical device and digital health products that address clinical unmet needs. She serves as an advisor to multiple medtech and healthtech startups and an angel network. Nishi also teaches health innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin where she is an adjunct faculty member.

Her career has spanned many job functions along the product life cycle, including ideation, design, venture creation, product development, regulatory strategy, launch, business development, and marketing. Prior to joining Innovation Lab, Nishi was the director of translational programs/health product innovation at Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin. She established and ran Texas Health Catalyst, the medical school’s flagship innovation program, and managed several key industry partnerships. Nishi also served as the director of marketing and business development at a nanotechnology startup that developed theranostic solutions for cancer imaging and drug delivery. In addition to her medical degree, she holds a master’s degree from the College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin.

Mark Walker
Mark Walker is a member of the Dickinson Wright law firm and heads the El Paso office. A 1981 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Texas with majors in history and geology, Mark survived graduate school at UT while studying legal history and natural resource management and engineering. After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law in 1985, Mark has over 37 years of trial, appellate, and administrative hearing experience, including over 75 jury verdicts and 50 appeals to his credit. Mark has extensive experience resolving a broad array of business, commercial, product liability, election and campaign finance law, and general tort and insurance defense litigation. He has taken regional leadership roles in complex litigation. Mark continues to be recognized by his peers as a “Texas Super Lawyer” in civil litigation defense and by The Best Lawyers in America® in commercial litigation and personal injury defense, for which he was named “Lawyer of the Year.”

Mark is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Defense Research Institute, and he was a vice president of the Texas Association of Defense Counsel as well as past chair of the District 17A Grievance Committee. He has been board certified in personal injury trial law since 1990 and served six years on the examination commission of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is licensed in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. In addition to being a frequent speaker at state and national litigation conferences, Mark has been active in leadership in local community organizations, as well as state mental health organizations, legislation, and initiatives. When not working at the office or serving with a local organization, Mark can often be found fly fishing in cold waters.

Nigel James
Nigel James is a well-versed entrepreneur in the Industrial Controls System (ICS) space. He sits on the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Digital Transformation task force and hosts his own digital future committee that meets once a month with vendors and end users. He has a professional certificate from the New York Institute of Finance Mergers and Acquisition Course in 2017 and is very active in the M&A space.

Currently, Nigel is the program manager for Triad Controls Systems, a $38MM automation company within the Newtron Group. The Newtron Group is a $950MM national electrical contractor celebrating its 50 years in the business. He is responsible for implementing business and project management systems to improve the efficiency of the business operations. He supports multiple divisions in developing strategic plans to market within the Newtron family. Newtron has offices in New Orleans, LA; Baton Rouge, LA; Lake Charles, LA; Beaumont, TX; Deer Park, TX; Reno, NV; and Martinez, CA.

Additionally, Nigel has sat on several boards (BG, Mangan, OLQP, CSO-Galv/Houston) and is an advisor for several software development companies.

He received his degree chemical engineering from the University of Texas in Austin in 1986. Nigel worked in the refinery industry for eight years with Fina, including three years overseas in Grimsby, England.

He went into the automation consulting business in 1995. He founded his own firm, James Consulting Co., in 1999 that was bought and merged into Mangan Inc. in 2002. He served as president of Mangan from 2005 to 2006. He continued as president of the Gulf Coast division from 2007 to 2012. Mangan was named Control Engineering Magazine System Integrator of the Year in 2012, and he retired from Mangan the end of 2012. From there, Nigel became the president of Burrow Global Automation (BGA) in 2013 and grew that business from less than $2MM per year to over $20MM per year in four years. With a 55% year-over-year growth, BGA received the System Integrator of the Year award in 2017 from CFE Media. Nigel then became the chief strategic officer and director of business development for Burrow Global, which was then a $140MM, 800-employee EPC company with divisions in buildings, engineering, water/municipal, government, construction. Nigel was responsible for setting the strategic plan, branding, advertising, and business development aspects of the company and integrating all the divisions into a one-stop solution for clients.

As the inventor/creator of the Safety Lifecycle software (www.mangansoftware.com), Nigel has been very involved in developing best practices on Safety Lifecycle management for the industry for several Fortune 500 companies. He has numerous papers with CSIA, ISA, and associated vendor user groups.

Nigel has been married 30 years to Molly, has five children and six grandchildren, and when he is not working is very active in duck hunting, kayaking, camping, Boy Scouts, and Catholic youth ministry. He is a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, an Eagle Scout, and a recipient of the Herman Swift award. He was a school board president of Our Lady Queen of Peace (Richwood, TX) for four years and served as finance chair for the Catholic Schools Office for the Diocese of Galveston/Houston.

Kerry Fillip
Kerry Fillip has spent most of her career in public relations and event planning. With a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, she is a proponent of lifelong learning.

She volunteers her time with the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Williamson County Cemetery Restoration Team. With ancestors who have fought in every major U.S. war, she is proud to hail from a family of fighters.

As the daughter of a parent who lost their life to suicide, Kerry knows firsthand the negative and enduring impacts that suicide has on a family and is determined to do what she can to prevent anyone else from having to walk that road.

She lives in Salado with her three rescue dogs.

​Martha Hunt Hirsch
Martha Hunt Hirsch is a seasoned executive who has worked in private as well as large cap multinational public companies. She brings experience as a CFO, and as a senior functional leader in International Trade Compliance, Risk Management, M&A, P&L responsibility, and operational process improvements. She is known for developing financial structures and maximizing operational processes that create efficiencies and improve ROI. She meets all SEC Audit Committee Financial Expert qualifications. She is a continual learner with an inquisitive and practical business mind; she knows what questions to ask when assessing business viability – from M&A due diligence and credit evaluation to enterprise-wide system reviews and day-to-day operational processes. She navigates complexity and presents go-forward solutions that are financially sound, compliant, and business savvy. Martha’s successes as an advocate, designer, and implementor of new systems and processes ensures an insightful, trusted, and functionally deep perspective.

Martha is currently the CFO of Alloy Machine Works, Inc., a position she has held for over 15 years. As a key decision maker, she led the company through a major cultural change, optimizing organizational capabilities that now rely on standard operating procedures, accountability, and sound financial practices. Alloy Machine Works is a leading independent manufacturer of premium sand control screens including wire-wrapped, pre-packed, and premium diffusion bonded screens for the Water, Oil & Gas, Industrial and Environmental Industries.

In her prior position as Director of Credit and Finance, Martha paved the way for Husqvarna Professional Outdoor Power Products NA (a division of AB Electrolux ELUXB:  Stockholm at the time) to grow to over $300M in revenue by partnering with GE Money, GE Commercial Distribution Finance and GE Leasing to provide financing opportunities for the national customer base. In addition to her P&L responsibility and financial reporting role, she led major initiatives throughout the organization to ensure compliance with SOX. Martha served as the US member and key decision maker of the global team at AB Electrolux that designed and implemented a credit monitoring and scoring platform to mitigate worldwide credit risk exposure.

At Thyssen Steel Group N.A. (part of one of the largest steel manufacturers in the world, TKA:  DE), Martha directed all International Trade including Export Compliance, managed all US Customs Investigations, and facilitated all responses to the Department of Commerce on outstanding Antidumping and Countervailing Trade Suits. As part of the lead finance team, she provided strategic insight for the integration of the acquired National Steel Service Centers in the Southeast Region and established the business plan for the joint venture between Thyssen Steel and Worthington Steel.         

 Martha’s experience in M&A was also utilized at Husqvarna as she led the acquisition and integration of a major Canadian dealer. She also facilitated the successful sale of the Outdoor Power Division of Electrolux Financial to GE Commercial Distribution Finance.

Having served on a number of non-profit boards with investments or endowments >$1M, Martha has chaired audit, finance, and investment committees. In her board service, she maximized earnings available for scholarships; ensured compliance with investment policies, bylaws, and tax codes; safeguarded assets; complied with Federal, State, and other reporting requirements; and, presented financial solutions that furthered the mission and organizational objectives.

 Martha earned her MBA at Houston Baptist University and a BS in Sociology from Texas A&M University. She attended the 2020 “Get on Board” workshop offered through Women on Boards. She holds two professional designations: CCE – Certified Credit Executive, and CICP – Certified International Credit Professional.

Kimbery R. Miers
Kimberly R. Miers is the Office Managing Shareholder of the firm’s Austin office. She has experience in a variety of state and federal labor and employment law matters, with an emphasis on:

• • Complex class and collective action litigation
  • Wage and hour advice
  • Workplace Investigations
  • Title VII single plaintiff and class litigation
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission negotiations and litigation
  • Department of Labor matters

She regularly advises clients in all areas of employment law practices and policies, including wage and hour compliance, employee discipline and counseling and internal investigations.

Prior to joining Littler Mendelson, Kimberly was a senior employment attorney for a leading retailer. After law school, Kimberly served as law clerk to the Honorable Dixon W. Holman of the Texas Second Court of Appeals.

Focus Areas

Class ActionWage and HourDiscrimination and HarassmentHome Health and Home Care