By Rob Kepple
TDCAF Executive Director in Austin
The leadership of the Texas District & County Attorneys Foundation (TDCAF) would like to welcome a new anchor sponsor for TDCAA’s Prosecutor Management Institute (PMI): Buc-ee’s Ltd. Buc-ee’s was founded in Texas and now has dozens of stores across several states, and people there appreciate the need for solid management training. Like all Texans, Buc-ee’s wants prosecutors and staff to be good at our jobs! I want to thank Jeff Nadalo, Buc-ee’s General Counsel, for making the gift happen.
As you may know, PMI was established in 2016 to address a clear need for management training within our profession. Many prosecutors are promoted because of their trial work, but being a good trial lawyer doesn’t automatically mean you can manage a team of lawyers and staff. The Foundation invested in the development of PMI’s Fundamentals of Management course, and we are thankful that the Court of Criminal Appeals now supports these trainings within TDCAA’s grant.
Demand for the course remains high, and having Buc-ee’s as our great anchor sponsor means we can continue to offer it to everyone who needs it.
Twenty years of support for TDCAA
TDCAF will observe its 20th anniversary on August 21. Twenty years ago, TDCAA leadership recognized that to be our best, we often needed more support than what was offered through grant programs. By reaching out to the community and members of the association, we gained the flexibility to enhance programs and create new initiatives, such as the Victim Services Director position and the Prosecutor Management Institute. These programs began with Foundation funding and are now staples of TDCAA training. Other initiatives, such as the invaluable Advanced Trial Advocacy Courses, are faculty-intensive and needs additional resources to ensure excellence, and the Foundation has historically provided some of that.
I want to thank the Foundation leadership for always enthusiastically supporting our great profession.
Foundation leadership in the spotlight
We are fortunate to have a great Board of Trustees. The Foundation leadership has a wealth of experience, past and present, in criminal prosecution. For instance, keep an eye out for Mindy Montford, former Foundation Board President and assistant attorney general in the Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit. She and her team worked tirelessly until Austin’s Yogurt Shop Murders were solved. (See this article about the case in the University of Texas School of Law’s magazine: law.utexas.edu/magazine/2026/04/ 13/fighting-for-answers.) Even in her recent retirement from the AG’s Office, she’s not done: She has founded a new nonprofit, the National Cold Case Center, or NC3 for short, dedicated to bringing resources to bear to solve the thousands of cold cases across the country. It will be launching soon at nationalcoldcase.org.
Lawyers and friends in Austin recently honored David Escamilla, former County Attorney in Travis County and Honorary Life Member of TDCAA, with the dedication of a conference room in his honor at the CA’s offices. It was a great ceremony so well attended that they probably should have doubled the size of the room!
Finally, for any college sports fans, you should catch “Summer of ’83, Texas v. Tide,” a documentary from SEC Storied about the College World Series featuring Foundation Board member Johnny Keane Sutton. Johnny played left field on the University of Texas’s national championship baseball team.
You’ve got a great group making things happen at the Foundation!