May HCCTDW Meeting

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Check in at the Kroc 11:15 a.m.

Meal served at 11:30 a.m.

King Ranch Chicken, Salad, Spanish Rice, Refried Beans,

Churros with Cinnamon Sugar

Don’t forget your masks! Reservations for the luncheon should be made by emailing to jmsentell@icloud.com no later than Wednesday, April 27, 2022. The cost of the meal is $16.00 per person.

Leakey’s Dr. Rachel Yates Rallies Democratic Women

Dr. Rachel Goodman Yates will present her unique understanding of psychology and politics to the May Luncheon meeting of HCCTDW. The meeting will begin at 11:15 on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at the Kroc Community Center in Kerrville. 

Since 2016, Dr. Yates has led the Real County Democratic Party as its Chair. While leading the Democrats, Dr. Yates also works as a licensed marriage and family therapist, operating a practice in Leakey known as Talking River Psychotherapy. Her unique office, located across a city street from the Leakey schools, includes a gazebo for therapy sessions in a natural setting. 

Dr. Yates provides therapy for many rural communities in Real and surrounding counties. She began her unique psychotherapy practice in 1992 in Arizona, and set up her current office in Leakey in 2002. Her practice integrates individual psychotherapy with advocacy, research and program development serving a diverse population of adults, children and families. 

Dr. Yates’s Clinical Specialties include trauma, PTSD, personality disorders, chaotic high risk families and systems, and high conflict couples. She works with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to provide therapy in CPS cases. In addition to her decades of experience, Dr. Yates has earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in philosophy and psychology from the University of Florida, and a PhD. in philosophy and psychology from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Yates has many tales to tell of political organizing in conservative rural Texas. Real County adjoins Kerr County on its southwest corner, and looks a lot like the western half of Kerr County with its large ranches and sparse population. The population of Real County was 3,429 persons in 2020. The median household income is $38,659, with 11% living in poverty. By comparison, Kerr County population was 52,598 persons, with median household income of $57,196, and 11.6% living in poverty. The percentages of white (74.6%), Hispanic (24%) and Black (1.2%) residents in Real County are similar to Kerr County’s 68% White, 27.4% Hispanic and 2% Black residents. Leakey, the County seat, has an estimated population of 555.

Stephanie Ertel, outgoing President of the HCCTDW, remembers a Halloween party just before the 2018 election where Dr. Yates invited local Democrats to hear Ertel’s campaign pitch. “There were about a dozen of us there, but Rachel’s dynamic personality made it fun,” she reported. Dr. Yates has worked for six years to organize Democrats in Real County and the Hill Country. Real County is part of Texas House District 53 and U.S. House District 21 along with Kerr and Bandera Counties. Gillespie County is also part of U.S. House District 21.

During the business portion of the meeting, the HCCTDW will install officers for the chapter year which begins at the May 3, 2022 meeting. The officers to be installed include President Virginia Sawin of Gillespie County, and Vice President Lynette Wedig, Secretary Mary Ellen Summerlin and Treasurer Julie Sentell from Kerr County.