Experienced. Independent. Dedicated.

Justin is dedicated to the Arlington ISD community and its students. His background and experience in the community, as a legal advocate, as an AISD alum and parent, and in education—both at the classroom and policy-making levels—make him well-equipped to serve on the AISD Board of Trustees.

Born and raised on Arlington’s eastside, Justin attended AISD schools from Kindergarten through his graduation from Sam Houston High School, as Valedictorian. He learned the value of perseverance and dedication from his family, and worked in manual labor jobs in high school and college, including bailing hay, mowing lawns, and loading trucks. Justin spent his undergraduate years at Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelors in Government with honors and became the first person in his family to graduate from college.

Determined to ensure that students from similar backgrounds have the same opportunity, he joined Teach for America after college and taught 12th Grade Government and Economics at Rivera High School in Brownsville, Texas. While at Rivera, he sponsored the campus student council, coordinated an afters-chool credit-recovery program, led the campus “Go Center” for college and financial aid applications, and started an AP Macroeconomics course.

After his Teach for America commitment ended, Justin attended Stanford Law School, where he served on the Executive Boards of the Stanford Law Review and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties. But Justin remained a teacher at heart. While in law school, Justin worked in Stanford’s “Youth and Education Law Project,” a legal clinic that focuses on representing students with disabilities in special-education disputes. He also worked part-time as a Government teacher at Eastside College Preparatory School, which primarily serves future first-generation college students. Justin joined the first cohort of Stanford’s joint-degree program in education and law at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, earning a Masters in Education concurrently with his Juris Doctorate. As part of that program, Justin authored an article on the evolution of the “Government as Educator” paradigm in Supreme Court case law, which was later published in the BYU Education & Law Journal.

Justin returned to Texas after law school to serve as a law clerk to federal District Judge David C. Godbey and U.S. Fifth Circuit Judge Catharina Haynes. Today, he is a litigation attorney, practicing primarily in federal district and appellate courts. He has been named a Super Lawyers “Texas Rising Star” for six years and a “Best Lawyer Under 40” by D Magazine.

After Stanford, Justin and his wife Anna—also a Sam Houston alum and former teacher—returned home to Arlington. They have three kids, each attending an AISD school. Justin coaches his kids’ flag football and soccer teams, and he was a founding member of the Corey Dad’s Club. Justin and Anna are both active in PTA and previously have worked with the Arlington Council of PTAs to join every PTA in AISD. For better or worse, Justin is a lifelong fan of the Cowboys, Stars, Mavericks, and Rangers. He enjoys exploring Arlington history and restaurants.

Justin has served as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees for the Arlington ISD since 2017, where he currently is Chair of the Board’s Governance Committee. Before his Board service, Justin served multiple terms on AISD’s Financial Futures Committee and Citizens Bond Oversight Committee. Justin also served on the Capital Needs Steering Committee that helped craft the AISD’s transformative $663 million 2014 Bond package, and he had the privilege to serve on the Board of Directors of the Arlington ISD Education Foundation, a non-profit that distributes grants to AISD teachers. In October 2020, Justin was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of School Boards, the statewide advocacy organization for school boards in Texas.

Outside of AISD activities, Justin regularly speaks to high school students about college and career issues. Along with a friend from high school, Justin co-founded a scholarship for graduating seniors at Sam Houston HS that has awarded almost $40,000 since 2007. Aside from service related to the Arlington ISD, Justin currently serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for the United Way of Tarrant County and previously served on the Boards of Directors of the Arlington Public Library Foundation and of Leadership Arlington, where for three years he helped direct the Youth Leadership Arlington program.