Commissioner Lesley Briones has appointed one individual and recommended two others to the TIRZ 20 Board. TIRZ 20, located in Southwest Houston between Alief and Bellaire, works to address mobility deficiencies in the area and provides resources for the redevelopment of the Sharpstown Mall and Bellaire/Fondren commercial corridors.
Zion Escobar was appointed by Commissioner Briones as a direct appointment for a term expiring in December 2025. Meanwhile, Dr. Thu-Mai Nguyen and Ujari Mohite were recommended by the Commissioners Court, with approval pending by the Houston City Council.
Escobar is an award-winning civil engineer, founder, thought leader, and cultural advocate actively catalyzing investment in historic Freedmen’s Town. She is the founder and CEO of the Freedmen’s Town Community Investment Project (Invest In FT), which is driving the economic and cultural rebirth of Freedmen’s Town, Houston’s oldest Black settlement and the child of Juneteenth. The project aims to develop community-serving businesses, build community wealth, and promote community-led equitable economic development.
Before her role as the former Executive Director of the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, Zion spent more than 15 years transforming ideas into action as a civil engineer and green infrastructure advocate. She provided specialized technical and project support to a diverse range of public agencies, private clients, international NGOs, and design firms across Texas, Silicon Valley, and Shanghai. Her contributions to her profession and community have earned her recognition as one of Engineering News-Record magazine’s “Top 20 Under 40 in Texas and Louisiana” and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ “Young Engineer of the Year.” In 2020, she was honored by Girls Inc. of Greater Houston with the Eileen Campbell Vanguard Award for being Strong, Smart, and Bold.
Nguyen is a native Houstonian who currently works as a physical therapist at Houston Methodist. She is the proud child of Vietnamese refugees and a Texan who enjoys volunteering to promote causes in her local community. Her passions include civic engagement mobilization, health equity and access, affordable housing, climate sustainability, and LGBTQ+ rights. As a practitioner, she focuses on neurological and spinal conditions, with a special interest in social determinants of health as well as patient and family education. She enjoys traveling, cooking, and attending live shows and concerts.
Mohite is a transportation and transit planning professional with most of her 20-year career spent in the public sector. In April 2023, she returned to Houston METRO as their Chief Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Program Officer. As TOD rapidly gains momentum across the nation, creating exciting, people-centered places in city after city, she is working to establish this new program to leverage transit investments and encourage the development of dense, walkable, mixed-use communities that support sustainable growth in the Houston region.
Prior to this role, Ujari gained extensive experience in NEPA and led the development and implementation of complex and controversial capital projects. Her career includes a brief but impactful tenure at WSP USA as their Vice President of Transit Planning for the Texas region. At METRO, she has led several key projects, including the Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The creativity and partnerships forged through this project strengthened her belief in Transit Oriented Development as a tool to integrate and activate urban places and buildings.