Ann Snyder, member of the township Board of Directors
Ann Snyder serves on The Woodlands Township Board of Directors, being first elected to the board in 2015.
Re-elected in November, 2017, Snyder’s term current expires in November, 2019. Snyder also is the chairperson of the Ad Hoc Economic Development Committee and as secretary of the board.
In her day job, Snyder is the executive director of generosity for The Woodlands United Methodist Church, where she oversees funding for the foundation, missions, stewardship, school and capital campaign. She also serves as head of schools for The Woodlands Methodist Schools.
Prior to her position at The Woodlands United Methodist Church, Snyder served as president and CEO of Interfaith of The Woodlands as well as president & CEO of Interfaith Community Clinic where she oversaw staff and volunteers including doctors,
nurses and others.
Snyder holds a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Colorado State University, a Master of Education degree from the University of Missouri, and a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Baylor University. Question: Can you tell us about your background and how it led you from your current career to your position as a member of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors?
Snyder: My family and our two children and I moved here in the late 80s. What’s amazing is we had thought we’d live inside the loop and the chairman of the board suggested to us, my husband and I, why don’t you go out and look at a place called The Woodlands. We came out and we never went back. We met a wonderful builder, lived in our same home for almost 30 years until just recently. We raised our two children, both of whom went away to school, one MIT the other Baylor. Their best (job) offers were right here in the The Woodlands, so they came home. So it’s a parents, at least Jerry’s and I, a dream to have our family right here. So that personally, my background is education, I’ve taught from preschool, but predominantly at the university level.
When we moved here, I was part-time, adjunct, with the University of Houston and then went full-time and left there in the summer of 2004.
I was most recently their director of clinical and field experience in the College of Education. So students, be it undergraduate or doctoral, would go through my office for clinical student-teaching advisement, clinical intern. And it was a wonderful, wonderful position. That summer of 2004, I started working at Interfaith of The Woodlands.
It is what has really made The Woodlands so unique and so different. Mr. (George) Mitchell started The Woodlands Religious Community, which DBA is Interfaith of The Woodlands, before he officially opened The Woodlands, to bring the faith-based, to bring what I call the software, not meaning to be disrespectful, to this community. And we are an incredibly generous community. And I attribute it to Mr. Mitchell’s foundation of what was really truly important.
Part of serving as the president and CEO of Interfaith of The Woodlands, I also was the president and CEO of Interfaith Community Clinic. (it) Was not salaried (position), it was just something that we needed, that Interfaith needed to support. It was after a Sunday sermon in 2015 that, as I shared with my board of directors, God gave me permission to do something. So in the spring of 2016 I left Interfaith, I never said I was retiring, because if something wonderful came I wanted to have that opportunity to, perhaps, be considered.
So fast forward, six months later, Dr. (Ed) Robb—when he knew he was no longer going to be on the township board— approached me but he and I did not talk about it until Dec. 1, when he was officially off the township board and I started with the United Woodlands Methodist Church as part of his ministry staff. And it has been a wonderful, wonderful gift to me.
Question: Do you see a correlation between your work and your serving on the board.
Snyder: I do. I was brought up in a family where service is part of what you did. Volunteering is part of who you were. My parents were both very, very much in tune with that. And also under the auspice of, so to speak, that good things are for sharing.
At the university, when I taught for all those years, at Interfaith, at The Woodlands United Methodist Church, and I think all of those have helped me to become the person I am. In addition, of course, to an incredible family. But also I see a correlation with The Woodlands. Interfaith is the foundation. Mr. Mitchell started it, bringing the faith-based community here, be it Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, regardless of the faith, that we would all be welcome. So I think it’s very much a part of who I am and who The Woodlands is.
Question: What do you see as far the future of The Woodlands, including possible incorporation? Snyder: My passion of serving on The Woodlands Township board is to ensure that we in our next steps, which there will definitely be next steps, benefit the community as a whole and the residents who live here. If I was the artist painting the picture, (it would) still (be) a place that we can live, work, play and pray, but that it also embraces all faiths, all social-economic, ethnicities and all ages. That’s the foundation of who we are. Incorporation? We are, as a township board, having planning sessions that will occur throughout the
year. We are also looking at hiring a company, an entity that will help us as a township board, be able to outline the costs, the benefits, probably the pros and the cons of becoming incorporated. We have, I feel one chance to do it right. I think it’s our job to ensure that we have the most accurate information to give to the residents. Once I feel comfortable that we have that information and we can tell the voters that it will cost ‘X,’ not more than ‘X,’ and that these are benefits, and that they outweigh the cons, or not being incorporated, then calling that election. If the board passes it, it will be up to the residents to decide.
Question: You don’t have a position right now whether you are for or against incorporation?
Snyder: No, mine is the very same as when I ran the very first time. It’s because I want to know how much it will cost. And that’s where I think we’re taking a great analysis in the four entities that we’ve asked to come to tell us what is the best, what is not. I’m a big believer that I want The Woodlands to be in charge of its own destiny, not someone else outside The Woodlands, and have always felt that way.
Question: Your colleague John McMullan said during a recent Sunday Conversation interview that the county uses The Woodlands as its “piggy bank.” How would describe the relationship between The Woodlands and the county right now.
Snyder: Well, I think there’s somewhat of a disconnect. I grew up in a culture, and when I was on the school board, and I served for 15 years, we agree to disagree, but then we find the solution that will make good things happen for the community. Our goal on the school district was “what’s best for the kids.” So as a sevenmember board, and geographically, the school district is very eclectic. But as long as what we did was best for the children then you could stand and support that. I think that the county needs to, in its deliberation and its decisionmaking, to look at the entire county, but the different, be it areas, such as The Woodlands, and when they make they decisions do what’s best for The Woodlands. And I think that you would find people who do not feel that always happens.
On a personal note, the constant conflict, to me, has not resulted in moving forward. It seems like there’s so much friction and that is not a means that I’ve ever operated on. We may disagree, but let’s sit down. If the end result is to do what’s best for the county, as the end result of the school district is to do what’s best for the children, then you have to take into consideration that perhaps what is best for the northeast part of the school district may be different than the northwest, then you do what’s best for both.
I really think all this conflict and constant... and that’s why I ran for the board. It disheartened me to see The Woodlands be so combative with each other, on a local level, just in The Woodlands. Because that’s not the vision of Mr. Mitchell. I had the true privilege of visiting him, asking him advice, and I can’t speak for him, of course, but I had never seen the discord prior to the year that I ran. Question: Let me ask you about flooding issues. Where do you see the township going in preventing future flooding?
Snyder: We have to do something. Hopefully we can be part of bringing people together. Unfortunately Montgomery and Harris County have more control than we do. But something has to be done to mitigate, to stop that. Different agencies, local as well as state and federal officials, must come together and fix this. It’s awful what happened. What we have, hopefully the power to do, is making sure it won’t happen again.
I think the board, with its limited authority, has made great strides. One of our directors, Bruce [Rieser] is the appointed person. Again, I cannot speak for the board members, but I don’t think there’s a board member that would not think it was important. So it’s something we need that we need to be part of.
Question: Is the Drainage Task Force making any progress at this point? Snyder: I think it is making more (progress). We’ve just hired an engineering firm and I think that it has taken great strides in five months since Harvey. Question: Do you have any ambitions for higher office? Snyder: No, no. I did have ambitions to serve on the school board. Education is my passion, helping people is my passion. What brought me to the township is my friends outside the great state of Texas, where we used to live, said it should be called the Goodlands, for how I describe it. And I want to be a part to ensure that the quality of life that my children, my grandchildren now, and that families that enjoy, that we maintain, if not better.