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Revlynn Lawson: Sane Socializing
She holds down a serious legislative job with an ominous-sounding State of Texas title (committee director for the House Committee on County Affairs).
She earned impressive degrees from prestigious institutions (bachelor’s in psychology and sociology, master’s in social work from University of Southern California in Los Angeles; law from Washington University in St. Louis).
She comes from a long line of high achievers (doctors, nurses, lawyers, librarians, teachers, managers).
“It has to benefit something I care about — education, victims of abuse, health issues, children and teens, dogs, arts,” Lawson says “Then it has to be fun. So many events are people just standing around chit-chatting. I want to hear music and see people having fun.”
Lawson, 40, proves that one can make a difference in the world and still party down. Even gown-bedecked galas, which can be awfully starchy, strike her fancy.
“I love a good ball as much as the next person,” she says of formal charity events. “Any opportunity to get dressed up in Austin is welcome. They are not frivolous. There are some people won’t write the check unless the get involved socially.”
Raised in Houston’s Third Ward, she credits strong maternal influence from Janice Lawson, now director of business development and contract compliance with Austin Energy.
“My brother and I were raised as middle-class kids within a very small, but close-knit family that believed in a strong educational foundation, and exposure to the arts and diverse cultures,” she says.
Most of the family has stuck close to the Third Ward, historically home to Houston’s Jewish community, but majority African American since the 1960s.
“They don’t leave Houston,” Lawson says. “Everyone is still there.”
During the summer, she splashed at the McGregor Park pool, eating Frito pies and pickles. She spent whole days at Astroworld amusement park, where her aunt served as head nurse, but she also hung out at the public library, crabbed in Galveston Bay and toured the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
She didn’t mind returning to Herod Elementary School or Fondren Middle School each fall.
“I loved it. Loved to read,” she says. “Math came easy to me. Perhaps because of the finite answers. I liked new formulas, shortcuts and tricks.”\
Raised Episcopalian, Lawson’s school friends were mostly Jewish.
“Houston feels much more like home to me,” she says. “I felt more part of the world. Diverse friends. Food. Cultures. It was a big world. Between the library and Houston, I learned the world.”
How did she end up in Austin?
“My mom ‘kidnapped’ me and my younger brother and moved us to Austin,” she says “It was a forced removal and it was traumatic. I was 13. I had been accepted honors program at Bellaire High School and the High School for Health Professions.”
In fact, the Third Ward was becoming more dangerous. She recalls: “Used to be, for us kids, it was just get on your bike and go.”
Instead, Lawson attended racially mixed Reagan High School in Austin during some of its best years, when spirit was high in part because of a competitive football team.
“On balance I got everything I needed,” she says. “After not speaking to my mother for much of the summer before high school started, I got into the rhythm. Made friends.”
Involved with student council and other social activities, the still-single Lawson didn’t date a lot or have a serious boyfriend in high school.
Still, she kept a backup plan: “I was out of here.” USC offered the allures of Los Angeles: “I was back in a city — big, massive, diverse. I was happy.”
The policy bug had tickled her early. She worked in late U.S. Rep. J.J. “Jake” Pickle’s local office and for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett in Washington.
After graduation, she worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services as a social worker, then supervisor for two years. She was promoted to an internal lobbying job for the county. She stuck her nose into political races.
“I never considered running,” she says. “I like to be the person behind the scenes. I don’t want to be the face of anything.”
Eventually, as the Southern California social and business landscape shifted, she sold her house and returned to Texas.
“I do appreciate the Austin lifestyle and quality of life,” she says. “It’s more laid back and relaxed. Which was what I needed after years of the crazy hustle in LA. And I hadn’t lived near family in almost 20 years. It was time to come home.”
She got into consulting for an executive recruiting firm, then opened a short-lived day spa in Windsor Park.
A tip from family friend Anthony Haley led to a job working with Rep. Garnet Colemen when he was appointed a Texas House committee chair in 2009. Since then she has been making the rounds of the state’s 254 counties, make sure hearings run smoothly and according to House rules, rounding up members for hearings, and summarizing big research projects.
On the social side, she’s deeply involved with the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and LINKS, which she says was “like Junior League at a time when African American women were not allowed in the Junior League.” She belongs to the Town Lake Chapter, the younger of the city’s two LINKS groups, working to help Kids Cafe, an after-school program that feeds kids.
“For some of our kids, it’s the only meal they get during the day,” she says.
The Cafe is the motivational driver for LINKS’ Mardis Gras gala Feb. 26, 2011 at the Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol.
“A little formality is a good thing,” she says. “Do I want to do that every weekend of my life? No. But when done well, people donate more.”
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By Ray Howze
March 1, 2011 11:06 AM | Link to this
I happen by this website and saw your name and picture. I attended Huston-Tillotson College in the mid 60's and knew a Jan and Arleen Lawson. Beautiful smart ladies. You look just like Jan. When you see her, tell her hello and she did good.