AAUW WEST HARRIS COUNTY BRANCH

AAUW West Harris County, Houston, Texas Branch
GENERAL BRANCH MEETING AND PROGRAM
Saturday, February 21, 2026, 9:30 am
Blue Willow Bookshop Annex
14532 Memorial Drive (at Dairy Ashford) Houston, TX 77079

SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH NATURE IN PERPETUITY

Program Speaker: Jane Wood,
Master Naturalist and Coastal Prairie Conservancy Advocate

In this part of Texas, we are surrounded with what once was a vast tall grass coastal prairie ecosystem, where buffalo roamed and the deer and the antelope played.  But it was so much more than a feeding ground for large mammals. It’s in the US’s central flyway for migrating birds, a sponge for rain, a filter for carbon dioxide, a mental health playground for humans and the home of Nature’s Burial.

Please join us to learn about how the Coastal Prairie Conservancy is safeguarding over 33,000 acres right “down the road.” Jane will share information about the latest additions to the Katy Prairie with the opening of a NEW Welcome Center and Texas’ FIRST EVER Conservation Cemetery called the Blazing Star Sanctuary!
Guests are welcome!

Diana Guarniere, Program VP

Dear AAUW – WHC Members,

I hope the New Year is getting off to a good start for you and your families. Our Houston weather provided us with the usual variations from tropical to freezing! For our gardeners out there, I hope your plants are coping with these wild fluctuations.

Did you know that February 11 was designated as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science by the United Nations? This day is dedicated to promoting gender equity in STEM fields and to encourage more women and girls to pursue careers in science and technology. I’m so proud our Branch has been doing just that through our funding of the Thomsen-Baker-Telfer Fund as well as twenty-six years of bringing the Expanding Your Horizons Day to young women throughout Houston.

Another part of our ongoing dedication to supporting women and girls in advancing their education is our support of the NCCWSL Scholarships (National Conference for College Women Student Leaders). NCCWSL is now managed by NASPA and unites college women from across our country to provide them with leadership development, networking, and inspiration. This year’s conference will take place in May at the University of Maryland. Keep tuned for more news on this year’s conference!

And finally, let’s highlight a famous AAUW member from the past:

Barbara McClintock:
She was the first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for her study of genetic transposition or “jumping genes” in maize. Received 1947 AAUW Achievement Award, with a prize of $2,500, at a time when 95% of available funding was going to men.

Lilian Care, President AAUW-West Harris County Branch

If you are in need of an AAUW nametag, you can order one today!

ORDER NAMETAG TODAY!