87th East Texas Yamboree Grand Parade Marshal

Kimbrelyn (Kim) Austin

lSaturday Parade Information

Kimbrelyn (Kim) Austin will serve as Grand Marshal of the 87th annual Yamboree Queen’s Parade. Kim is a Gilmer native who recently retired and moved back to her hometown. A past Yamboree Association board member, she designed many Yamboree gowns and pageant costumes through the years and also assisted with the pageants and parades.

During her time on the board, she was instrumental in developing new Yamboree promotional materials and creating a Yamboree essay contest for students in Upshur County. Kim hails from a family of long-time Yamboree volunteers, including her father, Tedd Austin, who served as president of the 52nd Yamboree. In 1973, Kim represented Gilmer High School as a princess in the court of Yamboree Queen Donna Stracener.

In 2021, Austin retired after a long and distinguished career leading university career management centers, most recently at Texas A&M University Mays Business School for graduate programs including MBA and specialty Masters students. Earlier she served as the executive director of career management for the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Prior to that, she held a similar role at Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus. She was hired there to establish a globally-focused center catering to the almost 50% international student population of the campus. That role required scouting career opportunities and developing relationships with employers in Asia and Pacific Rim countries ranging from Tonga to Japan to Mongolia and beyond. Throughout her career, Austin has been involved in preparing and mentoring students, early professionals and adults for employability and career progression.

Before the stint in Hawaii, Kim worked in China for more than four years as a consultant and trainer for the diplomatic training school operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People’s Republic of China. In addition to training junior diplomats, she consulted on a wide variety of special projects for the government.

In her earlier career, Austin spent more than 10 years as a strategist and marketing executive in the health care industry, primarily with the Baylor Health Care System, as well as stints in the government, economic development and apparel industry.

Kim holds a M.Ed. in business and adult education and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing from the University of North Texas. She is also a graduate of the health care administration executive program at The Ohio State University Graduate School of Health Sciences and is certified as an Economic Development Specialist through Texas A&M University’s Economic Development Institute.

Kim is a 1974 graduate of Gilmer High School and remains a proud Buckeye to this day.
In the past, she has served in a wide variety of leadership roles in both professional and civic organizations, including the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the MBA Career Services and Employer Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the Chambers of Commerce in several US locations, the American Chambers of Commerce in China and South Korea, the Dallas Metropolitan YMCA, the Rotary Club, the East Texas Yamboree Association, and more.

Currently, Austin is a member of the Twentieth Century Club of Gilmer. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In her new “retirement era” of life, Kim enjoys traveling, reading and researching family history.