Precinct4Forward Team

  • Lesley Briones

    COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT 4

    Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones is a native Texan and proud Latina who grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border. She is the daughter of teachers, who taught her the importance of education, hard work, and serving others—values that have defined her and which she now brings to the office of County Commissioner for Precinct 4.

    Upon graduating with honors from Harvard University, she began her career as an 8th and 10th-grade teacher at two of the lowest-income public schools in the country. She then attended Yale Law School, where she led the Latino Law Students’ Association's public service initiatives and provided pro-bono assistance to survivors of domestic abuse and juvenile offenders.

    Commissioner Briones returned to Texas to practice law at Vinson & Elkins LLP, then served as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of the Laura & John Arnold Foundation, a major national philanthropic nonprofit. She next became the Judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4. Judge Briones was the highest-rated Harris County Civil Court at Law Judge in the 2019 Houston Bar Association (HBA) Judicial Evaluation Poll and won the 2020 HBA Judicial Preference Poll. Briones co-founded the statewide nonprofit Texas Latinx Judges and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

    She and her husband, Adán, live in Houston with their three daughters and worship at St. Ambrose Catholic Church.

  • Anne Sung

    CHIEF POLICY & INNOVATION OFFICER

    Anne Sung is the Chief Policy and Innovation Officer for Harris County Precinct 4, where she leads innovative policy development to advance opportunity and justice.

    She is an experienced nonprofit and public sector leader who previously held leadership positions at Project GRAD Houston, Houston ISD, and the Houston Food Bank, where she built innovative programs to expand community opportunities.

    A former teacher, Sung is passionate about developing future leaders. She co-founded the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament and was a founding board member of New Leaders Council - Houston.

    She is an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow and holds a B.A. and a M.A. in physics and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University. She and her husband live in Houston and are proud parents of a wonderful child.

  • Kara Cook-Schultz

    DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION

    Kara cultivates the innovation, partnerships, and vision for Precinct 4 and Precinct4Forward.

    She has over a decade of public policy, communications, and program management experience, having worked as the toxics program director for the US Public Interest Research Group and the operations director for Bayou City Strategies.

    Most recently, she served as the senior policy advisor for Infrastructure for Precinct 4. Her policy papers have been featured in The Hill, the New York Times, CBS This Morning, and the Houston Chronicle. She has a public policy degree from Oklahoma State University and a JD from the University of California at Berkeley.