Board of Directors
John Courage, Chair
A longtime resident of San Antonio, John Courage has been a teacher and a voice for education in the community for the last 25 years. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era, honorably discharged in 1975, and graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he earned a BA in American Studies and his Texas teacher’s certification.
As a classroom teacher, John has primarily served special education students in inner-city public schools and taught U.S. History and Government within the San Antonio Independent School District. He has served on the San Antonio Teachers’ Council Board, been a delegate to the National Education Association’s convention for many years, and testified before the Texas House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the State Board of Education. He was appointed to the San Antonio Literacy Commission. In 1980, he was elected to the Alamo Community College District Board of Trustees in San Antonio and helped create Palo Alto Community College to expand higher education opportunities in South Bexar County.
A married father of four, John and his wife, Zada True-Courage, are active members of their community. He has served as a Boy Scout troop leader and a sponsor of his church’s youth group, as well as a volunteer coach for community soccer and baseball leagues.
John was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 21st Congressional District of Texas in 2006. His campaign was based on restoring honesty and integrity to Congress and making government work for the people. Through his leadership of the True Courage Action Network, John continues to work for the values that embody our community: honesty, integrity, family, freedom, and fairness.
Mario Champion, Vice-Chair
Mario Champion believes in the power of committed individuals like you and me to recognize and become the forces that shape our communities and culture.
Born in Houston, Mario moved to Austin in 1988. The progressive business, educational, and cultural climate of Austin encouraged him, in 1994, right out of the University of Texas’ School of Architecture, to found a small business. Having spent ten-plus years focused on design, technology, education, and entertainment, he has worked on projects with, among many others, Microsoft, Mattel, Willie Nelson, Democracy for Texas, and the University of Texas’ IC2 Institute. He has taught summer workshops for Capital Area Training Foundation (now SkillPoint) and IC2. Mario holds two U.S. Patents and has twice won SXSW’s Texas Interactive Media Award.
Mario was Travis County Coordinator for Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, personally registering more than 800 people in the last presidential election cycle. He is co-founder and executive director of Latinos for Texas, a statewide grassroots organization that seeks to unite communities in efforts for family, education, fair and equal treatment, broad prosperity, expanded political participation, and other shared values. More recently, he created OnlinePhonebanking.com and currently serves as a tools and technology development guru at True Blue Action PAC; both of these sites empower everyday citizens to work for the candidates or issues they believe in. Mario works to help activists become more strategic in our use of language and methods to help people see how being part of the political process improves everyday life and is fundamental to the well-being of families, community, and culture.
Sonia Santana, Secretary
Sonia Santana is a small-business owner of an eleven-year-old web design company, HyperWeb, located in Austin. She served on the Community Development Commission for the City of Austin for over seven years. She is active in many community groups, including the Austin Robot Group, a nonprofit that promotes technical community outreach, and a literacy group named FACT, where she currently serves on the board. Sonia worked on the Courage for Congress campaign’s online resources in 2006 and currently advises TCAN on internet tools and election-related policy matters.
Sandra Ramos, Treasurer
Sandra Ramos moved to Austin in 2005 with over 14 years’ experience in Democratic party politics, political consulting, fundraising, grassroots organizing, and activism.
In 2004, Sandra managed seven Colorado State House races, of which six were successful, resulting in a majority Democratic Colorado Legislature for the first time in almost 40 years. Her expertise has been recognized nationwide by the National Democratic Institute, Democracy for America, the White House Project, and the Colorado Women’s Agenda, for which Sandra has served as a facilitator and trainer for grassroots activist trainings.
During her time in Austin, Sandra has run the successful campaigns of Kirk Watson for Texas State Senate; True Blue Travis, the Travis County Democratic Coordinated Campaign, which oversaw the 32 Democratic races in the county; and Sarah Eckhardt for Travis County Commissioner, for whom Sandra currently serves as chief of staff.
Daniel Bradford
Daniel Bradford moved back to Texas in 1999, after years of a relatively comfortable exile in Ohio and a stint as an ex-pat in Brazil. The scion of true Texans on both sides of his family, he, despite his Ohio nativity, considers himself a son of The Republic. And whether in an effort to emulate his Many-Greats Grandfather Smalley, who preached the gospel and abolition in Brushy (now Round Rock, Texas) in the 1820s, or whether in an effort to make proud his West Texan dad, who taught Daniel the history of this great state, Daniel is committed to seeing Texas become all that it promises to be. And that starts with insisting on good and open government, clean elections, and civic education.
Daniel graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Portuguese and Latin American Development from Ohio State University in 1998. In 2003, he received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Currently employed as an attorney with Travis County, where he handles the county’s open government issues, Daniel previously served for three years as an attorney on the Texas Attorney General’s Opinion Committee, where he studied and wrote on Texas’s diverse legal issues, and where he served as the state’s expert on the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Hon. Sarah Eckhardt
The Honorable Sarah Eckhardt, a native of Houston, is continuing a family tradition of public service. After studying the arts at New York University, working as an actor/director for a celebrated New York theatrical company, and running her own successful NYC bistro, she returned to Texas to pursue a master’s degree at the LBJ School of Public Affairs as well as a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law, both of which she completed in 1998. She spent eight years as a prosecutor in the Travis County Attorney’s Office. In 2006 she was elected to the Travis County Commission (Place 2), where she works to find regional solutions for the best interests of the whole community.
Sarah was raised in a political family. Her parents were writer Nadine Eckhardt, who worked at the Texas Legislature and for Lyndon B. Johnson during his U.S. Senate years, and the Honorable Bob Eckhardt, a Texas state legislator and U.S. Representative known for his fearless defense of the Constitution. They taught Sarah and her siblings that good government comes from listening to the people most directly involved in an issue while never forgetting the ones who cannot speak for themselves. Through their example, Sarah learned that elective office is not a career but a temporary trust lent out to one among us willing to stand up for all of us. Today, through their own examples of civic duty and engagement, Sarah and her husband, attorney Kurt Sauer, are teaching those same values to their children, Hank and Nadine.
Hon. Eric Shepperd
[bio to come]
Zada True-Courage
Zada True-Courage grew up in an Air Force family that settled in San Antonio. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Liberal Arts and earned a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is a Certified Treasury Professional and has a long history of being active in her professional organization on the local and national levels. She also volunteers her expertise as TCAN’s comptroller.
Zada became active in politics in 1994 when she co-founded the Northeast Bexar County Democrats. She has served as a precinct chair and in 2004 and 2006 was elected to the State Democratic Executive Committee representing Senate District 25, co-chairing the Grassroots Committee. Inspired by Howard Dean, she co-led the Dean for Texas Meet-ups in San Antonio. Later in 2004 she was was part of the volunteer team that ran the San Antonio Democratic Campaign Headquarters. In 2005 she helped form the San Antonio Area Progressive Action Coalition (SAAPAC) and served as its chair.
Zada is also a staunch supporter of her husband, John Courage, who has been her partner in activism for more than twenty years. She and John have four children and one grandchild.
