This story originally appeared on fortworthreport.org
Standing on a stage in a downtown Fort Worth office building, Mayor Mattie Parker reflected on how her day began: looking out her hotel window onto the streets of downtown Austin. The view made her think about her city’s future, and how an expanded Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus will transform it.
“I’m kind of asking myself, ‘What will Fort Worth look like in the next 10 to 20 years?’” she told the audience gathered inside Frost Tower.
The answer to that question marries both of Parker’s academic identities. She’s a Longhorn who got her law degree from the Texas A&M School of Law back when it was still Texas Wesleyan. What’s powered a lot of Austin’s growth, she said, is her alma mater.
“University of Texas (at Austin) has anchored their city in so many ways, it’s been an exciting hub of innovation and moving a city and a community forward,” said Parker, who was wearing a burnt orange jacket that appeared brown in the afternoon light of downtown Fort Worth. “And I know for a fact that A&M is already doing that now and will continue to do it.”
Over 100 business and academic leaders attended a Texas A&M-Fort Worth Innovation Summit in downtown Thursday with the purpose of building out the academic and industry partnerships that will eventually be housed in Texas A&M-Fort Worth’s Research and Innovation Building currently being designed. Industry experts met in small groups to discuss the role the university could play in aerospace, agriculture, entrepreneurship, media and entertainment, workforce education and health care innovation.
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