Speaking Experience
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
Latina Voices television program, PBS, Houston, TX.
Interview with Carla begins halfway through clip:
STERLING BANK SPEECH
"Carla Powers delivered a remarkable presentation for Sterling Bank's Women's Business Initiative on Wednesday. Hers is an amazing story of courage, survival, strength, resilience, achievement, motivation and acceptance. She's beautifully captured her story in her book, "Matches in the Gas Tank: Trial by Fire in the Armstrong Cult."
"One of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received was 17 years of chaos and insanity.
When I was three months old, my dad joined the Herbert W. Armstrong cult, known as the Radio Church of God. We moved from Arkansas into the church enclave deep in the northeast Texas piney woods. By the time I was eight, Dad - an auto body repairman with a fourth grade education - had become a violent alcoholic pyromaniac. I didn’t free myself from the clutches of the cult and my dad until I was a senior in high school.
Yes, crazy as it sounds -- that life was a gift.
By the time I got to college, I realized that surviving terror, abuse and poverty had made me strong and resilient in many ways. The law professor who screamed that “girls can’t be trial lawyers” was nothing compared to Dad and the church. The tough judges, greedy partners, obnoxious clients – piece of cake."
RADIO INTERVIEW
NPR’s Morning Edition, Houston, TX
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Carla Powers was the keynote speaker for The Women’s Fund for Health Education and Research, celebrating the resiliency of women.
DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW
A chilling look at the relationship between religion and psychiatric health, Daniel Garcia’s recent documentary "Original Sin: Taming the Minotaur” explores the long-term effects of psycho-spiritual abuse in the life of Carla Powers and four other individuals. Caused by the misuse of doctrine(s) and/or authority by a parental or ecclesial figure, the tactics of psycho-spiritual abuse are often coercive and/or overtly forceful. By using fear, overly strict punishments, ridicule, humiliation and perfectionism, these environments create a diminished sense of self, which leads to a variety of psychiatric difficulties, including anxiety, depression and shame.
Non-Legal Speaking Experience
- Keynote speaker: Women’s Fund for Health Education and Research
- Keynote speaker: Sterling Bank Professional Women’s Luncheon, Houston, TX
- Keynote speaker: Porter & Hedges Women’s Initiative Luncheon, Houston, TX
- Keynote Speaker: Women’s Corporate Counsel Group, Dallas, TX
- Keynote Speaker: Houston Paralegal Association
- Keynote Speaker: Women’s Corporate Counsel Group, Houston, TX
- Keynote Speaker: Blacks in Energy Scholarship Luncheon, Houston, TX
- Interview, NPR’s Morning Edition, Houston, TX
- Interview, Latina Voices television program, PBS, Houston, TX
- United Way of Greater Houston Women’s Initiative
- University of Houston Women’s Center Table Talk 2010 Conversationalist
- CNN/TIME/Fortune/Shell Principal Voices, participant, New York, NY
- Fort Bend Literacy Council, Sugar Land, Texas
- River Oaks Women’s Breakfast Club, Houston, TX
- Proclarius Breakfast Club, Houston, TX
- Interview, Old Times radio program, Shreveport, LA
- Crowell and Mooring, Washington, DC
- DLA Piper Women’s History Month program, Houston, TX
- Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City, MO
- DLA Piper Women’s History Month program, Chicago, IL
- Book signing and speech, Beaumont, TX
- Various book signing events, Houston, TX
- Shell WAVE Pearls of Wisdom program, Houston, TX
- EOTRIBE09: Lipstick & Leadership, Houston, TX
- US Naval Academy Alumni group, Houston, TX
- Vinson & Elkins, Houston, TX
- Texas A&M Maggies
- Houston Professional Women’s Breakfast Club, Houston, TX
- Mehaffy Weber, Houston, TX
- Mom 2.0 Summit, New Orleans, LA
- Moderator, Be The One: LeaderCast 2010 “Fueling Houston's Leadership Pipeline,” Houston, TX
Legal Speaking Experience
- Keynote Speaker: Institute for Transnational Arbitration luncheon
- American Bar Association, Annual Meeting panelist, 5 programs
- CPR Institute for Conflict Prevention/Resolution, 5 programs
- State Bar of Texas, 4 programs
- International Association of Defense Counsel, 8 programs
- International Bar Association, 4 panels
- Houston Bar Association, 8 programs
- South Texas College of Law, 2 programs
- University of Texas Law School
- University of Texas International Law Symposium
- International Academy of Mediators
- Lawyers for Civil Justice Reform
- National Black Law Students’ Association Annual Meeting
- Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Strategic Risk Management Institute
- Defense Research Institute
- National Institute for Trial Advocacy, 4 programs
- Emory University School of Law, Faculty member, Trial Advocacy Program