Vice President, Communications
Merrill helps Texans better understand the research, data and policy choices shaping the state's future. Before joining Texas 2036, she spent more than three decades advising Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and nonprofits across Texas on strategic communications and public affairs.
Over the last 25 years, Texas natural gas production has more than doubled. And it continues to grow, establishing Texas as the stronghold for U.S. and international energy security. If Texas were an independent country, it would be the third-largest natural gas producer on earth, behind the rest of the United States and Russia. But…
Nonprofit organizations’ fundraising success is all too often measured on one too-highly-weighted metric: the ratio of program expense versus administrative expense, or what is often referred to as overhead. “What that metric actually measures is how little an organization invests in itself,” wrote one fundraising expert earlier this month. “Overhead is not the opposite of…
Texas reached 31.7 million residents in July 2025, adding more than 391,000 people in a single year. We rank in the top four states for percent growth and lead the nation in numeric change. By headline measures, Texas is still very much a growth story. Yet, the shape of that growth is changing. The U.S….
Texas’ wildcatter mindset has resulted in a maximalist — and surprising — expansion of renewable energy resources in a state traditionally associated with oil and gas. Exploring 25 years of U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, this series traces the Lone Star State’s unexpected transformation into an “all of the above and below” energy powerhouse,…
At the turn of this century, Texas was a major oil producer — but not yet the dominant one. In 2000, energy analysts viewed the state’s output as a mature asset in slow, inevitable decline. Today, however, the Lone Star State is an “all of the above and below” energy powerhouse that produces nearly half…