Austin Community College
Austin Community College is a nationally recognized two-year college serving Central Texas. ACC is focused on student success and providing affordable, flexible pathways to help students reach their education goals, learn new job skills, or advance their career. Check out our students' inspiring stories at austincc.edu/iamaccwww.austincc.edu
29
MENTIONS
19
EPISODES
17
PODCASTS
Search complete. 29 mentions across 19 episodes found for "Austin Community College".
Nov 4, 2026
Rich WilsonHOST
Today's episode is titled Building Trusts While Building the System.
Rich WilsonHOST
And my guest today is Kelly Torrico, Chief Human Resources Officer at Austin Community College.
Rich WilsonHOST
Kelly's career path is anything but typical.
Rich WilsonHOST
Her background includes military service, corporate HR, mental health operations, and now higher education.
24 MINS LATER
Kelly TorricoGUEST
And so, you know, it makes sense to really take great care to examine what we do, how we do it, and again, most importantly, helping people understand why, validating, you know, the feelings around it and finding ways to strike that balance of supporting students, being adaptive, while not infringing on, you know, educational, instructional freedom, or the privacy of individuals, or frankly, outsourcing human skills and aptitude.
Rich WilsonHOST
So in a higher education environment, how do you balance innovation with caution when tools are evolving faster than the policies can keep up?
Kelly TorricoGUEST
At Austin Community College, we have an AI committee and an AI – in higher education, it's called shared governance, so kind of a work group around this.
Kelly TorricoGUEST
Okay.
Ismail El-FathSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So without those two places, I think I probably would have had a far more difficult period of adaptation.
Jimmy MossCORRESPONDENT
He attended Austin Community College, then studied mechanical engineering at Texas and worked nights at a hotel.
Jimmy MossCORRESPONDENT
Refereeing was not the plan.
Jimmy MossCORRESPONDENT
He was always at odds with referees as a player in pickup games and later with the Austin Men's Soccer Association.
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
They should mean something to everybody because, you know, when you're spending all of these – when taxing authorities – are spending dollars, the dollars they have are all of our taxpayer dollars.
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
I mean, you know, whether it's the city, whether it's the school district, whether it's the county, whether it's the healthcare district, I mean, whether it's ACC, I mean, I think every one of those entities ought to have forced outside third-party audits.
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
Sure.
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
Because I will tell you, I think – I don't think, I know.
13 MINS LATER
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
And every taxing authority in Austin ought to be made to do the same.
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
I mean, this one just is going to apply to the city of Austin.
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
ACC needs it.
Gerald DaughertyGUEST
Central Health needs it.
Stephen BrownGUEST
I grew up on 9th Street, lived all over East Austin.
Stephen BrownGUEST
graduated from Austin Community College, Houston, Tillerson.
Mose BuchelCORRESPONDENT
He also served on the Givens Park Advisory Board and the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition.
Stephen BrownGUEST
You know, I have a lot of continuity of what's going on from lived experience and also from an academic perspective.
Jane HughsonGUEST
And I did not initiate it.
Jane HughsonGUEST
And that is Austin Community College.
Jane HughsonGUEST
Community Action provides the funding, and they've been teaching HVAC, heating, ventilation, air conditioning classes, in the library for a while.
Jane HughsonGUEST
I think they'd already had two classes.
Rob RoarkHOST
Yes,
Jane HughsonGUEST
that's CAPCOG.
Jane HughsonGUEST
And so I have gotten to know Don Tracy from Austin Community College.
Jane HughsonGUEST
And some of the outreach things that they are doing is fantastic.
Steve HarperHOST
Well, that ends today, right? I wish I had that power, but hopefully, I mean, the more that you have these conversations, the more that you get this message out, I think the more positive ripples that that sends out into the world for people to actually look at things a little bit differently.
Steve HarperHOST
I did a leadership thing for the Austin Community College and their nonprofit program where they sort of are engaging over the period of time, like a course of a year, People that are sort of remaking their careers as leaders.
Steve HarperHOST
Maybe they've transitioned or want to transition to a next or larger opportunity with a nonprofit.
Steve HarperHOST
And those future leaders who know they're ready for that next step, but they're not quite sure exactly what the next step actually involves.
Rubí Sánchez LozoyaHOST
Each episode, join me in a conversation with fascinating scholars and thinkers to explore world cinema in a way that feels warm, inviting, and completely jargon-free.
Rubí Sánchez LozoyaHOST
Lidia C. de Vaca Cruz is a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin and in Humanities at Austin Community College.
Rubí Sánchez LozoyaHOST
She specializes in Mexican-American and Native American Indigenous Studies and teaches all aspects of American hemispheric literatures, arts, and culture.
Rubí Sánchez LozoyaHOST
She's the host of the upcoming podcast, La Semilla.
Aaron AlarconGUEST
He's an academic.
Aaron AlarconGUEST
He teaches at Austin Community College.
Aaron AlarconGUEST
We both are very committed to the same values, equity, justice, education, economic advancement for all, and we also have two beautiful cats, Mayari and Dulce.
Loren CrawfordHOST
Nice.
EdHOST
Is the benefits that big for Pflugerville? I don't think it is.
EdHOST
I don't think if you want to go to ACC, you're going to go to ACC.
EdHOST
I just think it's, again, they don't want to be taxed anymore over there.
MelyndaHOST
Not when it's coming in at about an additional $400 a year taxes for you.
MelyndaHOST
Again, we talk so much about, well, what's my benefit from that? And I know I should be thinking about the young people.
MelyndaHOST
No one was thinking about me when I paid for college.
MelyndaHOST
So there are plenty of places that you can go already and get in there and get a lower tuition at ACC.
MelyndaHOST
I don't think this needs to be another one.
MelindaHOST
Now, if you have the DSA coming in to join with the squad members that are already there, Hakeem Jeffries does not have that ability to do the same.
MarkHOST
no he's not cut from the same cloth is he and uh it's also going to depend on what kind of a margin they have if it's just a few votes here and there that'll be interesting to see how that plays out plus it depends on how many dsa members end up getting elected 512-836-0590 if you live in pflugerville are you planning to vote yes to begin paying property taxes to austin community college The election voting started today, and this is on your ballot in Pflugerville.
MarkHOST
Do you want to become part of the Austin Community College taxing district so your property taxes will be going up?
MelindaHOST
No, I do not.
MelindaHOST
I will never volunteer to increase my property taxes.
9 more episodes mention Austin Community College.
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