Board of Directors

Mr. Andrew Cottrill, Board President

Mr. Cottrill has been an Austin area resident since 1996. He has been employed as a financial advisor with Edward Jones in Georgetown, TX, since 2001. Mr. Cottrill's background is in accounting, having earned a bachelor of accountancy from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, in 1995. He also completed a master in public accountancy at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997.

Mr. Cottrill has been a CFP® since 2004. Prior to joining Edward Jones, he was employed by Arthur Andersen in Houston, TX, in the international tax consulting group. Mr. Cottrill has been married to his wife Jana since 2002. They have two children and live in Round Rock, TX.

Mr. Travis C. Graves, Vice-President

Mr. Graves has been a resident of Georgetown, Texas since 2001 and was born and raised in Texas. Currently he is employed at Advanced Micro Devices on the Sales & Operations Team.

Prior experience includes 19+ years in Mfg Finance and Systems Implementations at Dell (7 years), Qualcomm in San Diego, CA (2 years) and Motorola in Seguin, TX (10 years). He received a B.B.A. degree in Accounting from Texas State University in 1988 and a M.B.A. degree in Finance from Texas State University in 1998.

Mr. Graves also serves as President of V&K Sales which specializes in the distribution of packaging materials.  Mr. Graves and his wife, Lorraine, have five children.

Mr. Mick Swope, Secretary

Mr. Swope is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with more than 19 years of experience in the information security industry. He currently works as an ITT Security Engineer at Hewlett-Packard where he designs and implements global solutions to ensure HP is protected from today's advanced cyber threats. Mr. Swope has more than 20 years combined service in the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve in the Intelligence and Information Operations arenas.

Mr. Swope is currently serving on the board of the Georgetown Running Club as Director of Volunteer and Social Services and he leads several running groups in the Georgetown and Round Rock areas. He has been married to his wife, Cathy, for almost 19 years and they have two children attending Gateway College Prep.

Mr. Tory Gant, Member

Tory Gant is an energetic motivational speaker with the incredible ability to get people fired up about making positive changes in their lives and in the lives of their communities. He has a long history with Orenda, having been the keynote speaker at the first Orenda district wide staff development in 2012, as well as the first Gateway Tech graduation. 

For the last twenty five years, Tory has travelled throughout the United States training teachers and students on the PAL Curriculum to help utilize the potential of youth to create positive changes in their lives, in their schools and in their communities. 

Mr. Richard N. Rickey, Ex Officio

Mr. Rickey is the founder of Orenda Education. Early in his career he was the Director of Education and then Executive Director for a community health foundation that developed and provided health promotion curriculum and programs to numerous schools in Central Oklahoma. He later went into the health care field and served as a hospital Chief Executive Officer with Hospital Corporation of America and Behavioral Healthcare Corporation, a physician practice management company owner and most recently as a multi-facility healthcare executive overseeing hospitals and clinics in multiple states.

Mr. Rickey received a Master of Public Health degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of Oklahoma. He also received a Master of Arts degree from Southern Nazarene University and a B.A. from Eastern Nazarene College. Mr. Rickey recently served on the Board of Trustees for the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems and is a former board member of the National Association for Children's Behavioral Health.

Richard comes from a family of teachers and is involved with the Texas Charter School Association, the National Fatherhood Initiative, the Salvation Army and the American Heart Association. He has also coached youth basketball and baseball teams. He is the proud father of a daughter and a son.