2024-2025 Advocate of the Year

Daniella Lopez Valdez has served on the Brownsville ISD Board of Trustees for just five years, but public education has been a passion of hers for much longer.

Her desire to serve public schools and her community stems from her South Texas upbringing. Her parents, Sylvia and Joey Lopez, served as trustees themselves, and her mother, who passed away earlier this year, was a public school teacher for 42 years. Together, they instilled in Lopez Valdez from a young age the importance of a strong education and giving back. 

It’s safe to say she took that message to heart and ran with it.

Now president of her board, Lopez Valdez was named TASB’s 2025 Advocate of the Year at txEDCON in Houston in September. The Association has handed out this award annually since 2021 to trustees who go the extra mile in speaking up for their communities and advocating for Texas public education.

“This past year, Daniella stepped up in a big way for the students in her community and beyond,” said Kelly Rasti, associate executive director of TASB Governmental Relations. “She maintained a strong presence at the Capitol during the legislative session and was always there trying to make an impact, from testifying on important pieces of legislation, to talking with lawmakers and staffers. Wherever there was work to be done, we could count on her to be there.”

Texas Lone Star spoke with Lopez Valdez about her advocacy efforts. Her comments have been lightly edited.  

Q: What inspired your passion for Texas public schools and being a leader in your community? 

My mom was a teacher for 42 years and she was always very active in giving back to the community. She would always go above and beyond for the kids, and I got to see the way a passionate teacher can inspire so many students. Seeing everything she did, especially during the pandemic in 2020, which is the year I ran for school board, really made me want to channel my passion into doing something that can make a difference.

I saw schools in our region get shut down during the pandemic, when so many of our kids rely on them for a warm meal. I watched our bus drivers, counselors, and nurses and everything they did. And then seeing how our teachers had to learn to do everything online, it all made me want to get involved. 

I started looking into all the school finance issues when I became the budget chair, including teacher pay, and the legislation involved. I realized we needed to do something about the budget, so I started advocating. 

I’ve been involved in the past two legislative sessions, and during the first one in 2023, we helped pass a bill that created an inclusive sports program for kids in special education. Our district was one of the first to pilot the program, and that was really inspiring. 

Throughout the process, I started to recognize that if you’re not involved in all these conversations, people just forget or think you don’t care. I started to activate my region, which had been silent for a long time, and that’s why I started this advocacy journey. 

Q: What does being named Advocate of the Year mean to you? 

It was very meaningful in a tough year for public education, and me personally. My mom was battling cancer, but she kept teaching through it all. In seeing that, I felt a strong need to be that advocate for her and her students. 

Not everything from the legislative session might have turned out the way we wanted it to, but we brought more awareness to public education than anyone could have imagined. We gathered more people than ever before, including students and educators, and were in offices nonstop even before the session began. 

I think we showed that education is a means to prosperity, and we have to give a voice to the voiceless. Everything we did was worth it, and receiving this honor means a lot, not only to myself and my community, but also to the 5.5 million Texas schoolchildren and all my trustee friends who serve them.  

Q: Why do you think advocating for public education matters? 

Advocating for our public schools matters because it is a means to an end for a lot of people. It is the foundation for a successful economy and the foundation for a successful future. Education is the greatest equalizer. It’s a warm meal. It’s a teacher who believes in a student when maybe no one else at home does. It’s a safe haven for many, and if we don’t advocate for that, then we’re not advocating for every child.

As local leaders, we must speak up for our communities to our officials, because local control is important. Advocacy is completely essential, and we cannot stay quiet.  

Q: Do you have any advice for other trustees who want to be more involved in advocacy efforts? 

I would encourage trustees to take a step back, look at where your schools’ needs are coming from, and make it a grassroots issue. You need to educate the community about the way the budget works, the way our schools are funded, the way mandates and policies come down from the state, and how we implement those things. Because when you educate the community, they can join your fight and help you be an even bigger voice. 

Grassroots work is essential. Our community needs to understand the different angles the burden on public education comes from. Advocacy is part of our mission, and it’s not just figuring out whether our school needs a new gym or if a school is going to have to close; it’s about looking at the bigger picture. We need to make sure every child can get a quality education and that is an effort that involves so many of us.

As trustees, we are the largest body of elected officials, and we are powerful. That’s why we can’t stay silent.  

Q: What was your biggest advocacy highlight of 2025? 

The biggest highlight for me was watching all of my fellow trustees come together during the legislative session. We would constantly be messaging each other when we were going to the Capitol and figuring out which legislators’ offices we wanted to go to. We created such a strong network of all of us being activated to do what we thought was right, whether it was calling a certain office or organizing and sending our teachers and students all together to be a powerful presence. And then on the day the school funding bill passed the House, the dais was full of people wearing red [to show support for public education], which was huge. We “won” in the House in the sense that we advocated for the basic allotment and got to show officials there what our communities wanted. It was powerful and it was essential.