Experience. Relationships. Knowledge. Impact.
Trustee Lynn Boswell is known for bringing people and organizations together to solve problems and build relationships. She has developed a deep understanding of the district's strengths, challenges, and opportunities during four years as an Austin ISD Trustee and many years as a parent and volunteer in the district. Lynn also brings experience advocating at the city, county, state, and federal levels to achieve systemic change that benefits Austin’s students, educators, and families.
Legacy of Service to Austin ISD
Lynn’s service to Austin ISD began with the Casis Elementary PTA when her son started Kindergarten. She later served as President of the Austin Council of PTAs, leading district-wide work to ensure all families have meaningful partnerships with their schools and earning national recognition for the Council’s work. Lynn also sat on the boards of three campus PTAs.
In addition to her work to support family-school partnerships, Lynn has been a member of AISD’s Visual & Performing Arts Strategic Planning Steering Committee, three Campus Advisory Committees, the District Advisory Council, AISD UpClose, and the NACER Leadership Team.
Lynn was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2020. She has served as board secretary since 2022 and has chaired the board’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee during two legislative sessions.
Mentorship for Austin ISD Students
As a longtime mentor for PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, Lynn helped high school students develop journalism and crtiical thinking skills by producing reports about current events. This nationwide program pairs teachers with professional journalists who serve as classroom mentors. Lynn mentored students at Austin High and Navarro in AISD, as well as students in Pflugerville and Manor. She has also spoken about the impact of SRL on panels with Austin ISD students at SXSWedu and the PBS Annual Meeting. Three SRL students have worked with her on documentary projects after their graduations. You can see student work from Austin and across the US on the Student Reporting Labs website.
Public Education Advocacy
Lynn is an experienced public education advocate who understands how decisions made at the Texas Legislature impact our local schools. She helped create Just Fund It TX, which unites public school supporters from across Texas to share one essential message with lawmakers: our public schools need more funding. Lynn was a featured speaker at the Raise Your Hand Texas Measure What Matters Day, urging lawmakers to create a more meaningful system of testing and accountability. She was the keynote speaker at the 2024 Capitol Day for the student-led advoacy group SEAT. She testifies regularly about issues impacting public education when the Texas Legislature is in session. And she led the effort to create Austin ISD’s Advocacy Advisory Committee.
Statewide Leadership
Austin ISD is one of more than 1000 school districts in Texas. We have far more power when we speak with one voice. As a director of the Texas Association of School Boards, Lynn helps shape and promote this powerful organization’s statewide advocacy agenda, working closely with trustees from across Texas to advocate for shared goals that include increased funding, protecting districts’ local control, supporting student mental health, improving teacher retention, and reducing the burden of high-stakes standardized testing. TASB also offers services that help districts save millions of dollars each year and connects trustees for training and opportunities to share best practices. In addition to her statewide leadership, Lynn serves as a member of the national school board steering committee for Local Progress.
Connected to Community
Everyone in our community has a part to play in supporting our schools. Lynn has a proven history of collaborative and strategic work to promote policies and support partnerships that help our city’s students. She coordinated parent and student advocacy to help make CapMetro free for all K-12 students. In 2017, Lynn was part of a coalition formed to study and recommend the elimination of Austin’s juvenile curfew. The policy, in place for 27 years, was intended to deter juvenile crime. Instead, the curfew was an ineffective deterrent that had a disproportionate impact on Black and :Latino youth. Lynn helped write the group’s report, and the City Council unanimously approved the recommendation. Lynn also served on the Travis County Census 2020 Complete Count Committee, created to ensure that Austin receives our full share of federal funds for education, transportation, healthcare, housing, and more.