Executive Board 2024
Karl Schmalz
Red Co-Chair, Co-Founder
Karl Schmalz is a retired oil and gas industry tax lawyer. He grew up in Massachusetts and received a degree in economics from Princeton University and a law degree from the University of Texas. He currently serves as a senior advisor to the International Tax and Investment Center. Karl is a long time member of the board of Communities in Schools Dallas Region, a stay in school non-profit that works with at risk students. He and his wife, Bonnie Martin, their two children and four grandchildren all live in Austin, Texas.
Joanne Richards
Blue Co-Chair
Joanne Richards (blue) is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in, what is now, Eritrea from 1966-68 where she met her husband, a fellow volunteer. In 1981 she joined the University of Texas at Austin faculty and retired in 2015. In 2010, Joanne founded Common Ground for Texans. She currently serves as Chair of the Braver Angels Central Texas Politics Group, VP of Community and Policy with the Austin Area League of Women Voters and Vice-Chair of Ranked Choice Voting for Texas. She is committed to not othering folks who think different from herself.
Blue Co-Chair
Joanne Richards (blue) is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in, what is now, Eritrea from 1966-68 where she met her husband, a fellow volunteer. In 1981 she joined the University of Texas at Austin faculty and retired in 2015. In 2010, Joanne founded Common Ground for Texans. She currently serves as Chair of the Braver Angels Central Texas Politics Group, VP of Community and Policy with the Austin Area League of Women Voters and Vice-Chair of Ranked Choice Voting for Texas. She is committed to not othering folks who think different from herself.
Susan Adams
Executive Board
Susan Adams (Blue) is the Regional Coordinator for the Citizens' Climate Lobby Third Coast region, which includes Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Susan co-founded the CCL Austin chapter in 2012 and volunteered with the organization until coming on staff in early 2018. In addition to her experience volunteering with CCL, she has twenty years of experience working as a technical writer and editor, managing projects across diverse, multicultural teams for such companies as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE), HP, and Compaq. Most recently, she was the Managing Editor for an online community of over a million IT professionals, working on new strategies to attract and engage over 6 million unique visitors per month. Susan has two daughters and enjoys playing the fiddle badly.
Norman Kaderlan
Executive Board, Co-Founder
Norman Kaderlan has studied life sciences, led arts organizations, advised design professionals on managing and marketing, mentored technology startups, taught marketing to engineers, and helped researchers around the world move their innovations from the lab to the market. He loves traveling, eating, cooking and photography.
Executive Board, Co-Founder
Norman Kaderlan has studied life sciences, led arts organizations, advised design professionals on managing and marketing, mentored technology startups, taught marketing to engineers, and helped researchers around the world move their innovations from the lab to the market. He loves traveling, eating, cooking and photography.
Josh Kline
Executive Board
Joshua Kline (purple) lives in the Austin Texas area with his wife and son. He owns a small production company; JKP Image Fusion. Joshua assists organizations with their virtual, hybrid, live events and multimedia content as a producer and technologist. He is also a photographer, documentarian and filmmaker. Joshua studied Psychology and Political Science at the University of South Florida. He then worked for ABC News in Washington DC as an editorial producer at the television assignment desk before going to film school at Full Sail University. After film school Joshua worked in Production and Post Production in Los Angeles before starting his own production company in 2004. Based in Austin since 2019; he enjoys the outdoors and travel.
Executive Board
Joshua Kline (purple) lives in the Austin Texas area with his wife and son. He owns a small production company; JKP Image Fusion. Joshua assists organizations with their virtual, hybrid, live events and multimedia content as a producer and technologist. He is also a photographer, documentarian and filmmaker. Joshua studied Psychology and Political Science at the University of South Florida. He then worked for ABC News in Washington DC as an editorial producer at the television assignment desk before going to film school at Full Sail University. After film school Joshua worked in Production and Post Production in Los Angeles before starting his own production company in 2004. Based in Austin since 2019; he enjoys the outdoors and travel.
Jade Morgan
Executive Board
Jade Morgan (Purple) is a public service professional with over 15 years of experience working in social welfare, community development and education. Jade holds a bachelor’s degree in international social work from Metropolitan State University of Denver and a master’s degree in social science research from New York University. From 2015 – 2017 Jade served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines where she worked to empower women, girls, and youth. She moved to Austin, Texas in 2021 to be closer to family and more like-minded folks.
Jade came to Braver Angels from the fringe. From a very young age, Jade gravitated to a politically radical subculture and had little exposure to alternative views. Eventually she began to recognize that her confrontational approach was flawed and worsening the very issues that she sought to make better. Since this realization, Jade has been on a journey exploring differing ideas in good faith, learning from people of all political persuasions, and promoting tolerance and civility. Although she’s not quite the radical she once was, she still enjoys rock'n'roll music, tattoos, and riding on the back of motorcycles. She is also an artist, musician, movie-lover, world traveler and outdoorswoman.
Steve Saltwick
Co-Founder, Past Red Co-Chair
Steve Saltwick is a bio-psychologist whose career took a path through high-tech (Tandem, Compaq, HP, and two startups) on six continents. He studies the guiding principles of the mammalian brain especially as it relates to artificial intelligence. He has published in SCIENCE but prefers to dote on his first grandchild and two border collies. Steve was the founding Co-Chair (Red) of the National Office of Field Operations. He is now the Inaugural Senior Fellow of Braver Angels.
Mike Seay
Co-Founder, Past Blue Co-Chair
Michael Seay is an attorney and CPA and founding member of Seay & Traphagan -- a law firm that practices state and local tax law. Mike is also the immediate past president of Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest synagogue in Austin. Mike is a progressive (blue) organizer for Braver Angels and committed to reducing political polarization. He is the father of two kids, Jude (10) and Joy (8).
Peter Yoder
Executive Board
Peter Yoder (Red) has worked for over a decade in the entertainment and technology sectors innovating with fortune 500 companies (Bechtel, ConocoPhillips, Disney), bringing new startups to market (Dosh, SmartAC.com, etc), and running film productions (Corruption, The Ascent). With a broad range of experience including starting companies of his own (Rocksauce Studios, ProCliq), to running over 200+ technology projects, Peter brings clear strategic thinking and battle-tested instincts to each project he takes on.