Congressman Pat Fallon has represented Texas’ 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House since 2021. He currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Before Congress, Fallon served in both the Texas House and Texas Senate, including on the Texas Senate Committee on Education, where he worked on issues involving public schools, teachers, curriculum, and school governance. His work in Congress has also addressed education-related issues, including campus access for military recruiters, college financial aid, foreign influence in American schools and universities, and national-security concerns involving higher education. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Fallon played on its 1988 national championship football team before serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He later became an entrepreneur before entering public service. As the Special Guest Speaker for Taking Back Texas Education, Congressman Fallon brings experience at both the state and federal levels on issues affecting Texas schools, families, and students.

Brian Harrison is a passionate and effective advocate for limited government and individual liberty who proudly represents House District 10, which covers all of Ellis County. A native Texan and graduate of Ovilla Christian School, Brian and his family have long been involved in Ellis County. Brian was recruited to serve as President Trump’s Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the largest government agency in the world, during his first administration, where he oversaw a staff of over 83,000 and a budget of over $1.4 trillion, helped secure the border with Title 42, slash burdensome regulations, and defunded Planned Parenthood. Brian’s work has been repeatedly praised by President Trump! Now serving as a Texas State Representative, Brian has been acclaimed by conservative leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz, who said, “Brian Harrison is a fighter for freedom and the type of leader we need in the Texas Legislature,” and he has been called the “most impactful state legislator in America” for the victories he’s achieved against the Austin Swamp and his unwavering and unapologetic fights against abusive property taxes, big government spending, corporate welfare, and nanny state bureaucrats and regulations that seek to control how Texans live their lives. ​Brian has also previously worked in the White House, Pentagon, and in small family businesses based in Ellis County, where he lives with his wife, Tara, and their four children: Hudson, Tucker, Hayes, and Violet.

Julie Pickren represents District 7 on the Texas State Board of Education, where she has been involved in statewide decisions affecting curriculum standards, instructional materials, educator policy and the direction of public education in Texas. Before joining the SBOE in 2023, Pickren served six years as a trustee for Alvin ISD, from 2015 through 2021, giving her experience at both the local-school-board and statewide education-policy levels. Pickren currently serves on the SBOE’s Committee on School Initiatives, whose responsibilities include educational technology, school safety, educator-certification rules, school-board training and long-range education planning. Her State Board biography has also listed her as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Social Studies. Her work has been particularly relevant to the Board’s ongoing revision of Texas' K–12 social studies standards. During the 2026 review process, Pickren submitted amendments involving elementary standards as well as high-school U.S. History, U.S. Government, World History and World Geography. She also participated in amendments concerning the state's recommended literary-works lists. Pickren is also a homeschooling parent, with her younger son participating in Liberty University’s dual-credit School of Business program. Her background gives her experience spanning traditional public schools, school-board governance, homeschooling and statewide curriculum policy.

Stephanie Elad serves as Vice President of the Frisco Independent School District Board of Trustees and represents Place 3. First elected to the Board in 2022, she was reelected to another three-year term in May 2025 and was selected by her fellow trustees to serve as Board Vice President in June 2026. Her current term runs through 2028. Elad is also a longtime Frisco ISD parent. One of her daughters is an FISD graduate and another is currently an FISD student. Professionally, she serves as a Vice President of Human Resources and Administration and holds a master's degree in Speech Communication from San Diego State University and a bachelor's degree in Communication from the University of California, San Diego. She has also been involved with the Independence High School Cheer Booster Club. In discussing education, Elad has publicly emphasized preparing students for life after graduation, recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, addressing enrollment and budget challenges, and ensuring parents have meaningful avenues to communicate concerns to their school district. Those issues overlap with several of Frisco ISD's current priorities, including student accountability, postsecondary preparation, organizational effectiveness and staff support. Her experience combines the perspectives of a school-board leader, parent and human-resources executive overseeing one of North Texas' largest public-school systems.

Andrew currently serves as an Advisor to the President, Donor Relations at The Heritage Foundation. Prior to that, Andrew served as the senior development manager at Texas Values and spent 35 years building and managing national, regional and local media sales teams at companies like AT&T, Car and Driver, CBS, NBC and Reader’s Digest. Upon moving his family to Southlake, Texas in 2013, Andrew and his wife Patty immediately went to work helping keep Texas red. Andrew’s 2021 election to the Southlake Carroll ISD school board flipped the board to a 4-3 conservative majority (now 7-0 conservatives) where he serves as vice president. Among the board’s many accomplishments, Andrew and fellow trustees successfully sued the Biden administration in federal court to uphold their local school district policy that protects girls’ private spaces and sports teams from biological boys and prohibited compelled speech for students, staff and faculty. Andrew has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and master’s degree in integrated marketing from Marist University. He and wife Patty of 29 years are the proud

parents of three daughters: a Longhorn, an Aggie and an Auburn tiger.

Meghan Vecchio brings a perspective shaped by experience on multiple sides of public education—as a former Plano ISD student, a former Plano ISD teacher and the parent of children in the district. She has been an active participant in local education discussions and has appeared before the Plano ISD Board of Trustees to raise concerns involving district policy, students and parental involvement. Her public engagement on education has continued in recent years. Plano ISD's September 2024 board minutes record Vecchio addressing trustees specifically regarding parental rights and parent concerns. In 2025, she also became involved in community concerns surrounding conditions at Murphy Middle School after her child reported problems at the campus; those concerns became part of a broader public discussion regarding air quality, building conditions and communication between the district and parents. Her background as both a former classroom teacher and current parent gives her a firsthand perspective on how district-level decisions affect students, teachers and families. Vecchio's participation in the panel will bring the conversation from statewide policy and school-board governance directly to the experiences of parents navigating public education at the campus and district level.

The son of a public school teacher, Seth Weinstein is a DFW area parent who has participated in North Texas education and parent-engagement initiatives, particularly efforts designed to help families and educators become more informed and effective participants in their children's schools. Weinstein has participated in parent-led advocacy, navigating school systems and addressing antisemitism and issues affecting Jewish students in K–12 educational settings. The initiative has included engagement with education leaders in several North Texas school systems and discussions surrounding the safety and inclusion of Jewish students and identities in educational environments. As moderator of the Taking Back Texas Education panel, Weinstein will bring a parent-centered perspective to the conversation and guide a discussion spanning statewide education policy, curriculum, school-board governance, classroom experiences, parental engagement and the challenges facing Texas families and teachers.