Saralee Tiede, director of communications at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin, has been an award-winning political reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Times Herald and the Dallas Morning News and a general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle.  She was Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby’s chief of staff from 1985 to 1990 and served as deputy chancellor for external affairs of the University of Houston System when he was chancellor, 1995 to 1997. She has also served in communications positions for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas General Land Office and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.