It is with great sadness that we share the news that lifelong educator and longtime CTAC board member Lodis Rhodes died on August 3, 2017. He was 71 years old.

Dr. Rhodes' teaching career spanned 42 years at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He was a dedicated and insightful member of CTAC's board of directors for more than two decades. Both at CTAC and in his many community and academic involvements in Austin, he was a fervent and skilled advocate for equity and social justice. He was also a very thoughtful and committed mentor to many students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Professor Rhodes taught courses in management, building and sustaining local communities, technology and education policy. His recent multi-year research project on "best practices" to ensure equitable access to digital technologies was examining how and where communities use interactive technologies, including a study of the public access sites of the Austin Free-Net (AFN)-Neighborhood Network.

Prior to his appointment at the LBJ School, he was a Fellow of the American Council on Education and created the Institute for Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska. Dr. Rhodes previously served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Research at the LBJ School; Assistant to the President, Vice President and Provost of The University of Texas at Austin; and Coordinator of African-American Studies at the University of Nebraska.

Dr. Rhodes was cofounder and Chairman of the Board of the Austin Learning Academy, a community-based research and development laboratory that focuses on education. He was the former Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Austin Housing Authority; Task Force Member of Environmental Equity and Justice; Editorial Board Member and Advisor of the Texas Center for Educational Research; and Director of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators.

Dr. Rhodes received a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Nebraska, 1972; M.S. in psychology from Kansas State University, 1970; and a B.A. from Kansas State University, 1968.

He will be very much missed by the CTAC family.