IN-PERSON & ZOOM MEETING : Embracing the Future While Saving the Past: Preservation Austin in 2026

 

Mary Kahle is on the Board of Directors of Preservation Austin and serves as chair of its Advocacy Committee. She teaches oral history at Texas State University, and she has served as the president of the Board of Directors of the Texas Oral History Association. Mary also chaired the Austin History Center Association’s oral history committee and served on a working group dedicated to preserving the history of the Austin State Hospital. Her major oral history work involves the Save Our Springs Movement of the early 1990s, a grassroots uprising to protect Barton Springs from the potential environmental impacts of a proposed real estate development upstream of the iconic swimming pool. Mary recently completed an oral history project for the City of Austin to document the 1959-1961 “swim-ins” to integrate Barton Springs, and she researches and writes extensively on Austin’s undertold history. Mary is a history steward through the Texas Historical Commission, a volunteer role in which she assists the public with questions about oral history, historic preservation, and other topics. She is also a longtime volunteer tutor with Foundation Communities, a local non-profit that provides affordable housing to families, veterans, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. Mary holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University, an MBA from UT Austin, and a master’s in public history from Texas State University. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, their three children, and the rotating cast of rescue animals that wind up in their home.