Distinguished Alumni
Trisha S. Pollard
Awarded 2013
A former regent of the Texas State University System, Trisha Pollard has exemplified SHSU’s motto—“The measure of a Life is its Service”—since her graduation from the university in 1974. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a major in business education from SHSU, followed by a Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law in 1980. Pollard’s professional career spans almost 30 years in the oil and gas industry during which she served a term as the chair of the Houston Bar Association Oil and Gas Section. In 2003, Gov. Rick Perry appointed her to the Texas One-Call Board for which she served as chairman of the board’s Compliance Oversight Committee. She was appointed to the Texas State University System Board of Regents in 2007. During her six-year term, she was vice chairman of the board; chair of the Rules and Regulations committee; member of the Audit and Finance Committee; member of the Planning and Construction Committee; local chair for Sul Ross State University; and chair of the Diversity Enhancement Committee. She has served five terms as the Harris County Grand Jury foreman, including the May 2003 term, during which the greatest number of cases in history was handled by a Harris County Grand Jury. Through the Houston Bar Association, Pollard has volunteered in the Lawyers in Public Schools program, participated in Habitat for Humanity projects, read to fourth graders in Houston schools on Constitution Day, and assisted senior citizens with preparing testamentary documents. She has been active in her adopted hometown of Bellaire by serving on the city’s Building and Standards Commission and Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and has supported numerous community organizations. As a member of the Sam Houston State University Alumni Association Board of Directors, Pollard proposed and initiated the Tuition Raffle Program, which has raised more than $125,000 in scholarships for first-generation students. She has also served on the development and scholarship committees for the association and rewrote the Alumni Association by-laws. Pollard and her husband, Randy, are the parents of three children