Our Team
Leslie Dutcher-Treviño
Leslie Dutcher-Treviño is the cofounder and President of The Webber Family Preservation Project. She studied Radiology at Tarrant County College. Her work included overseeing 14 breast cancer centers in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, working with the The Susan G. Komen Foundation organizing the yearly Race For The Cure, and as an American Cancer Society ambassador and Registrar. This experience in nonprofit work coupled with her 15 years experience conducting archival research, enabled her to establish the Webber Family Preservation Project. As President she has secured historical markers, given presentations on historic research and preservation, and led her organization to co-curate an exhibit with the Dolph Briscoe Center, at the University of Texas in Austin, centered on Silvia Hector Webber. This exhibit featured on the Today Show on their Juneteenth episode in 2024. She most recently led her nonprofit in successfully being awarded a Mellon Foundation Grant, and a National Trust grant. The work included in these grants is curating exhibits at the Plano African American Museum and the San Antonio Public Library Carver branch, tours in Webberville and the Webber Cemetery, a digital archive, symposiums, and transnational historical research. Her husband Omar J. Trevińo and their son Jesse Dean are both direct descendants of John Webber and Silvia Hector-Webber and they reside North Fort Worth/Keller.
President
Sofia Bravo
Sofia Bravo is a fourth generation direct descendant of John & Silvia Hector Webber through her father Herminio Bravo, grandson of Jeremiah Marcelino Webber the youngest son of John & Silvia. She was raised in the Rio Grande Valley region on land once owned by John & Silvia. There, she spent time with her grandparents and great grandparents, learning from their stories and experiences. Since she was a little girl, Sofia alongside her father, has served as the caretaker of the historical Webber Cemetery in Hidalgo County, Texas. Today, she continues to serve as the caretaker of her family’s cemetery as well as stands as Vice President of the Webber Family Preservation Project. She is proud to be serving as an advocate in cemetery restoration, preservation, and advocacy.
Vice President
Omar J. Trevino
Secretary
Omar J. Trevinois a fifth generation direct descendant of John & Silvia Hector-Webber. Despite having grown up in the Rio Grande Valley where John and Silvia had lived and raised their family, he only learned of family legacy after the death of his grandfather Juan Webber in 2004. He learned his grandfather kept a detailed family tree going back to John and Silvia and Omar has since kept his grandfather’s example of research alive and works tirelessly to ensure his family history is not forgotten. He is the co-founder of the Webber Family Preservation Project and serves as it’s secretary. Omar graduated from TSTC and has worked in engineering and design for 25 years in the North Fort Worth/ Keller area with his wife Leslie Dutcher-Trevino and his son Jesse Dean Trevino.
Cindy Cavazos
Treasurer
Cynthia Cavazos is a fifth generation Webber descendant through her mother Olga Webber. She was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and graduated from Mercedes High School and went on to graduate from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with a bachelor’s degree in business management. She has two sons and three grandchildren and lives in Weslaco, Texas with her husband Fred.
Roger Sashington
Community Outreach Director
Roger Sashington is a Dallas, Texas resident with deep Southern roots in Mobile, Alabama, a background that has instilled in him a lifelong appreciation for family heritage and the stories that connect generations. He serves as a Member of the Webber Family Preservation Project Board, where he works to engage communities in the vital work of preserving family histories. Professionally, Roger is a Subcontract Manager for a Global Government Defense Contractor. A devoted husband and father of four, Roger understands firsthand the importance of knowing where you come from and passing that legacy on to the next generation.
Dr. Rolonda Teal
Historical Advisor
Dr. Rolonda Teal is a scholar whose groundbreaking contributions in anthropology and history has paved the way for a greater understanding of African American experiences in the United States. She holds a Ph.D. in Forestry (Human Dimensions) from Stephen F. Austin State University, an MA in Historical Archaeology from the University of Houston, and a BA in Anthropology from Northwestern State University of Louisiana, where she made history as the first and only African American to earn an anthropology degree. Dr. Teal further broke barriers by becoming the first African American female to receive a doctorate from the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. She was also the first and only African American female to receive her BA from Northwestern State University (LA). Her expertise encompasses ethnography, ethnohistory, extensive research on the Underground Railroad, as well as African American history and culture in the South.
María Esther Hammack
Historical Advisor
María Esther Hammack is a Mexican scholar and public historian whose work bridges the histories of liberation and abolition that shaped the US, Mexico, and Canada. Her first book Channels of Liberation: Freedom Fighters in the Age of Abolition reexamines the Underground Railroad to reconsider & broaden the actors, timelines, and geographies of Black Liberation in North America through the experiences of Black Americans, principally women, who left the United States to claim freedom in Mexican spaces. Dr. Hammack is currently Co-PI of a Humanities in Place grant from the Mellon Foundation in collaboration with the Webber Family Preservation Project in Texas and serves various national and international organizations in various positions. This year, 2024-2025, she received the Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring from the College of Arts and Sciences here at The Ohio State University.