“Welcome to the RAMily,” Michele M. Boillotat remembers reading in a text from Texas Wesleyan University President  Emily Messer. Boillotat had just accepted her position as Vice President for Advancement and with those four words, stepped over the threshold and into a new home.

Truth be told, the word “RAMily” (or family) is brought up a lot when talking to the four subjects of this story. In July, Dr. Messer began her second year as president. Michele Boillotat, who in some ways considers herself a first-year student, is the new Vice President for Advancement. Beverly Powell, who has a storied history with the University, currently serves as assistant to the president for external affairs. Karen Surita, a 2001 graduate, leads the Alumni Association Board of Directors as president. While each uses her own background to inform her current work, together they harness the power of relationships to link generations of alumni, current students and supporters of Texas Wesleyan. Together they are a quartet of leaders overseeing Fort Worth’s oldest university and leading it into its next great chapter.

Leader of the RAMily: President Emily Messer’s Vision for a Culture of Caring
President Emily Messer marked her one-year anniversary at Texas Wesleyan in July 2024. With summer typically being a quieter season on campus, she had some time to reflect on her first year, which was filled with lots of learning and meetings — faculty, staff and students, people in the community and Fort Worth leaders. For Messer, relationships are crucial to her work. In fact, she considers them the key to success in life. She, herself, was mentored by her university president as an undergrad at Jacksonville State University and credits the relationship with helping her choose the professional path she’s since followed. 

“I talk a lot about a culture of caring,” she shared from her office in September. “Caring for each other, caring for our campus, caring for our students, but it goes back to teamwork and family and working together as one cohesive unit to support our students.” While still early in her tenure at Texas Wesleyan, she’s laying the groundwork for what she hopes to be part of her larger story: cultivating a faculty and staff that care for each other. 

As with any family, life within the University is complex. A glance at President Messer’s schedule reveals this truth: athletics, economic development of the community, student retention, expansion into online programs, faculty requests — these are just a few of the evermoving pieces of life at Texas Wesleyan on any given day. However, if President Messer has had an opportunity to be with students, she checks the day off as an especially meaningful one. “Students are the reason I do what I do every day,” she shared. “That’s why I’ve always gravitated towards a smaller university — because I can get to know the students.” 

President Messer does, in fact, make herself available to students. When not in  meetings, she likes to walk Kay Granger Mall and return phone calls and emails. You may see her stop in the Martin Center for a snack and a quick conversation about last Saturday’s football game. Her daughters were onsite on the first day of fall classes and helped direct students who were finding their way around the Oneal-Sells Administration Building. She’s personally written medical school recommendations for students in the past year. “I’m here,” she said. “I’m accessible.” 

Being someone that female students can look up to is important to President Messer. She shared that one of her daughters asked for a “clear speaker box” for Christmas. Puzzled at the request, Dr. Messer inquired further and discovered her daughter was thinking of the acrylic podium she’s seen her mom stand behind at work. “She wanted a ‘clear speaker box’ so she can give her speeches,” Messer said. “That means a lot to me that they see me.”

New Student in the RAMily: Michele Boillotat’s Approach to Inclusive Advancement
Just down the hall from President Messer is the Office of Advancement where Vice President for Advancement Michele Boillotat arrived in  May 2024. Her work with universities is extensive and includes time at Rice, Indiana, Dartmouth and Ohio State. These institutions (and more) helped her learn both the art and science behind university advancement, mainly helping people find their right way to give back. “Their” being the operative word. 

In college, Boillotat had a student job calling alumni and inviting them to make donations. The experience taught her that not everyone’s ready to answer that kind of call. “There are people,” she shared, “that have a passion for the institution, but they don’t feel like they’re necessarily in a financial place where they can give back. That hurts my heart a little because the way I look at it, and truly believe, philanthropy is not just about giving your treasure, but your time and your talent.” 

When most people think about giving to their alma mater, it’s the large gifts — the kind that put your name on the side of a building — that often come to mind. But for Boillotat, that’s only part of the story. In her view, it’s important to help everyone find their place in supporting the University. Long before a gift is made, her work starts with building relationships. Whether Boillotat’s team is working with volunteers, training student workers or guiding donors in finding their right opportunity, the goal is to learn about people’s interests and passions first and second, connect them to the right cause. 

Like school pride, the spirit of generosity is contagious and can be shared, she believes, through anything from monthly $10 donations to connecting the University to a corporate donor to mentoring current students or recent graduates. “All the work my team and I are doing right now is to impact our students,” she shared. Scholarships, faculty support, new programs, athletics, campus facilities — there are a lot of needs across Texas Wesleyan, but Boillotat is excited to use collaboration, relationship building and idea sharing to draw more donors to the University. She hopes her work helps Texas Wesleyan become even further known as a place where students can find their community, excel and have the support they need to keep moving forward.

Wise Mentor for the RAMily: Beverly Powell’s Lifelong Legacy at Texas Wesleyan
In the story of Texas Wesleyan, Beverly Powell is hard to miss. As a former Texas State Senator, well-known advocate for public education, land developer, graduate of Texas Wesleyan and current assistant to the president for external affairs, she knows the University from the inside out. Her family’s “longtime legacy love affair” began with her parents who met while attending the University (her mother was voted “Most Athletic Woman” and her father was a decorated World War II hero). They even lived in on-campus couples housing after getting married. To this day, it’s her parents’ legacy that makes her ongoing work for Texas Wesleyan a “heart mission.” 

Powell has called herself a non-traditional student. She attended Texas Wesleyan in the 1980s after the recession impacted her real estate career. Coincidentally, two of her sons were in college at that time, with one also attending Texas Wesleyan. “There are so many students, kind of like I was, who are nontraditional … who need additional support and a relational environment. Texas Wesleyan reminded me of what my qualities were and what I had to offer the world,” she shared. After graduating in 1992, Powell considered pursuing another degree, but instead went back to the real estate world with what she called a renewed sense of self. 

While she didn’t set out to become a Texas State Senator at the beginning of her career, Powell credits her focus on public education as a school board trustee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Texas Wesleyan with preparing her for the job. “When the door opened for me to run for that office, I knew I could do it,” she said. The skills Powell learned from building relationships with the members of both boards helped her be an immediate success in Austin and pass more than 50 bills to benefit Tarrant County. 

Speaking of President Messer, she shared how she relishes the opportunity to assist in whatever capacities the President asks. In particular, Powell enjoys working on the University’s capital campaigns, which have previously included the Rosedale Renaissance and the Martin University Center. More recently, Powell chaired the University’s head football coach search committee and has worked with university and city officials to make the new stadium and athletic complex everything they can be. “The greatest thing that we can think about with regard to the stadium,” she said, “is that it brings new people into East Fort Worth.” More local businesses will thrive thanks to the stadium; in addition, the stadium will provide support for Fort Worth events, like concerts and high school sports. The $40 million capital campaign is on track to be successfully completed at the end of 2025.

Alumna of the RAMily Way: Karen Surita’s Mission to Connect Generations
Karen Surita became president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors in 2023, but first joined the board during the pandemic. Speaking on her opportunity to lead, she shared it means a lot. “Professors invested in me, the faculty and staff invested in me, and now it’s my turn to reinvest in the University.” In fact, Surita teared up as she shared about the guidance counselor who helped her find her place at Texas Wesleyan. “That small environment gave me the opportunity to succeed,” she said, “so why wouldn’t I want to give back?” 

As a student, Surita was as a biology major who spent much of her time in the McFadden Science Center labs. These days, outside of her work as Acting STD Prevention Program Manager for the Texas Department of State Health Services, she’s working to make the message from the alumni board loud and clear: Texas Wesleyan cares about its people. As president, Surita spends a lot of time thinking about the many generations who are part of Texas Wesleyan’s rich story. 

In addition to continuing to honor alumni for their work and helping connect classes of Texas Wesleyan graduates, Surita has a vision for building a more formal alumni association, expanding upon their current events and growing the association to increase awareness of its work. In addition, she keeps the many first-generation college students that have called Texas Wesleyan home top of mind. She wants to provide them a model of what being part of an alumni association looks like because “these shared experiences are valuable.” Whether it’s for someone who graduated in the 2010s or 1980s, she hopes to explore more of what leads people to reconnect to their university years after graduation. She sees many opportunities for the alumni board to collaborate with the Office of Advancement and President Messer. Speaking of the community amongst members of the board, she shared “the family feeling resonates with all of us.”

Nurturing the Future RAMily: A Vision for Texas Wesleyan’s Next Chapter
Texas Wesleyan’s current strategic plan will be completed at the end of 2025, which means President Messer and University leadership are already working to craft the next strategic plan. Though they’ve just begun, President Messer shared how she sees strategic growth and meeting the needs of the community surrounding Texas Wesleyan as priorities. 

For 137 years, Texas Wesleyan has grown alongside Fort Worth. For a city that’s often described as having a small-town feel (despite its population of nearly one million people), it’s not surprising that its oldest university is also repeatedly described in terms of family. As the adage goes, there’s the family you’re born into and then there’s the one you choose for yourself. At Texas Wesleyan, it’s a melding of the two. Relationships here aren’t just woven into the philosophies of its leaders — relationships are their everyday work.

A key part of the leadership at Texas Wesleyan is the recognition that empowered women can drive meaningful change, both within the university and beyond. President Messer, Vice President Boillotat, and their colleagues exemplify this power, shaping a campus culture where women are not only leaders but also mentors, advocates and role models. They are determined to create an environment where women feel supported and inspired to excel in every aspect of their academic and professional journeys. By fostering this supportive and empowering environment, Texas Wesleyan is helping to ensure that the next generation of women leaders is well-equipped to succeed and lead with confidence. Through their work, these women are not just making an impact at the university—they’re setting the stage for a future where empowered women can thrive in any field.