Full-Time Staff
Susie Smith
Director
Susie is from Texas and received a B.S. in Speech Communication from The University of Texas at Austin in 1987. Her career has focused in the areas of membership, development and event planning at organizations such as Barton Creek Country Club, Riverplace Country Club and destination management company, Circa Austin. Susie found her way back to the Forty Acres in 2008, serving as associate director for constituent relations in the College of Natural Sciences. In 2011, she was named director of Texas Parents and charged with developing strategies to enhance and expand Texas Parents services for all UT families. As mom of three active kids ages 23, 19 and 19 (yes, twins!), she enjoys being her kids' biggest fan in all that they do. Quite simply, Susie loves being a mom and sees her position at UT as an opportunity to draw on her and others' parental experiences to help UT parents and their students.
Favorite UT Austin Fact: Back in the day, class Adds and Drops were done manually with index cards and tables circling the multiple levels of the Erwin Center.
Chester Slimp
Membership Associate
Chester is from Texas and received a B.A. in Music (French Horn) from The University of Texas at Austin. He spent two decades as a musician in Austin while also pursuing a career in the restaurant industry. His restaurant experience has focused in the areas of management, training, and development at organizations such as Hai Hospitality and the Tatsu-ya restaurant group. A growing family and a career change brought Chester back to campus in 2021 and to Texas Parents in 2022. Chester’s parenting journey has just begun, with a toddler and a newborn at home. Watching them grow and learn is such a great joy and gives Chester an entirely new perspective to life on campus.
Favorite UT Austin Fact: The famous Big Bertha drum weighs in at over 500 pounds, measures eight feet in diameter, and is almost a century old. As a former member of the Longhorn Marching Band, Chester can tell you, for certain, that this is indeed the largest drum in the world.