Veronica Chapa Gorczynski is the President of the East End District, a geographic area serving approximately 16 square miles east of downtown Houston. The District’s services include public safety programs, an award-winning graffiti abatement program, maintenance of major thoroughfares, and disposal of illegally dumped trash. The District’s grant-funded capital program focuses on connecting neighborhoods and business to transit and resulted in $31 million in improvements through 2017, with an additional $45 million in new investments pending during her tenure.
A native of the Rio Grande Valley, educational and job opportunities have taken Veronica to live in San Antonio, New Orleans, Washington, DC, Austin, and now Houston. She is formerly the Executive Director of Early Matters, a historic coalition of business, civic, education, philanthropic, and nonprofit organizations, working together through a collective impact approach to raise awareness about the importance of high-quality early childhood education as an investment in the Greater Houston community. She has worked in government, nonprofit organizations, and education efforts—always focusing on ways to help the community gain resources and investment. In 2010, she was recruited by Mayor Annise Parker to join the administration as a Deputy Director of the Housing & Community Development Department to assist in an organizational turnaround and deploy almost half a billion dollars of federal investment throughout Houston.
A respected community development professional in Houston for almost a decade, Veronica is a senior fellow with the American Leadership Forum, a former Board Member of the Latin Women’s Initiative, a member of Leadership Houston Class 30, and a former Commissioner of the Houston Housing Authority. She is currently a board member of Transportation Advisory Group – Houston Region, a board member of the UH Friends of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and a Board Member of Memorial Park Conservancy. In 2019, Veronica was honored by Houston Woman Magazine as one of Houston’s Top 50 influential women. In January of 2020, she was invited to join as a Board Member of the prestigious Texas Lyceum. In 2021, she was elected Chair of the Houston Galveston Area Council, Transportation Improvement Plan Subcommittee to oversee the development of a process to distribute approximately a billion dollars in transportation funds throughout the region.
She pursued her undergraduate education at Saint Mary’s University and University of Texas at San Antonio and obtained both a Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning and a Master of Liberal Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. A breast cancer survivor, Veronica is passionate about politics, good wine, and Texas barbeque. When not working, she enjoys volunteering on projects aimed at improving community engagement and spending time with her husband John and young son, Diego.
Veronica Chapa Gorczynski
President
East End District
3211 Harrisburg Blvd.
Houston, TX 77003
(713) 928-9916
