Staff

Amy O’Donnell

Acting Executive Director

Amy O’Donnell, a passionate advocate for the pro-life cause, serves as the Acting Executive Director of Texas Alliance for Life, a nonpartisan, nonsectarian organization committed to protecting innocent human life from conception through natural death using peaceful, legal means.

Since joining Texas Alliance for Life in 2018 as Director of Communications and a member of the Public Policy Team, Amy has been a driving force in advocating for landmark pro-life legislation, including the Human Life Protection Act (HB 1280), the Chemical Abortion Safety Protocols Bill (SB 4), Senate Bill 22 (banning contracts between governmental entities and abortion providers and affiliates), the Texas Born Alive Infant Protection Act, and significant increases in funding for the Alternatives to Abortion program.

As a trusted spokesperson for Texas Alliance for Life, Amy has provided commentary and analysis on Texas abortion laws and pro-life efforts in regional, national, and international media, including The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, USA Today, Dallas Morning News, Texas Tribune, Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle, and numerous other broadcast outlets. She has also emceed major events, led press conferences alongside elected officials, and served as a keynote or featured speaker for pro-life partners and fundraisers across Texas.

In addition to her policy and communications experience at Texas Alliance for Life, Amy brings over a decade of nonprofit leadership experience from her time working at Shoreline Church in Austin, Texas, where she served in various capacities—including Campus Pastor (alongside her husband), women’s ministry project manager, team leader, annual conference coordinator, speaker, and budget manager.

Amy is the President of the Board of Directors at Radiance Women’s Center, a pregnancy resource center serving the greater Pflugerville, Hutto, and Manor areas. In this role, she helps lead efforts to support women facing unplanned pregnancies—connecting them with life-affirming care, job and life skills training, tangible goods, and the long-term support needed to raise their families.

As a mother of four who experienced an unplanned pregnancy in college, Amy’s personal commitment to the pro-life cause runs deep. She is the author of the parenting devotional “Parenting with a Purpose” and holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University. Amy lives outside Austin with her husband, David.

Kristyn Begari

Director of Administration

Deirdre Cooper

Public Policy Analyst

Deirdre has worked at Texas Alliance for Life since April 2008. She received her degrees in Psychology, Political Science and History from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY. After graduating with honors, she moved back to the D.C. area and worked in the policy department of the Family Research Council, where she met her husband, Kody. Her research at F.R.C. was focused on Planned Parenthood’s lack of informed consent, which prepared her well for pro-life work in Texas. She has legislatively advocated for the sonogram bill, the Choose Life license plate, defunding Planned Parenthood, H.B. 2, and the Human Life Protection Act in Texas. In 2021, her beloved unborn son, Bosco Joseph Paul, died during childbirth due to complications from Trisomy 18. His life has been the catalyst for her advocacy in protecting unborn children with disabilities from discrimination.

She enjoys keeping the organization’s Facebook page up-to-date, and raising her 9 children.

Regan Hogan

Public Policy Analyst

Regan graduated from Howard Payne University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in American History. He has spent the last few years covering numerous House and Senate committees during the legislative sessions at the state Capitol. He has volunteered at several pro-life events and is passionate about his faith, family, fishing, and football.

Lance Peterson

Director of Financial Development

Peterson has a bachelor’s from Michigan State University’s School of Hospitality Business and an M.B.A. in International Management. After spending seven years in hotel sales and marketing, Lance spent two years in Asia working for the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2000, Lance moved to Austin, Texas, from Vietnam to work for Wayport and, later, with STSN, in their sales and marketing divisions, where he sold and consulted on network installations.

Emma Short

Communications Associate

Emma graduated from Angelo State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication. During her time there, she was an active member of multiple honor societies, conducted independent research, and presented her work at the 2025 Student Research Symposium. Originally from Kerrville, Texas, Emma recently relocated to the Austin area with her husband. She is deeply passionate about advancing the pro-life cause and is honored to use her skills in communication to share stories, raise awareness, and inspire others to value and protect every human life.

Paul Benjamin Linton, Special Counsel

Paul Benjamin Linton is an attorney in private practice specializing in state and federal constitutional law and legislative consulting. Before entering private practice, he was General Counsel for Americans United for Life.

Mr. Linton has represented amici curiae in landmark beginning-of-life and end-of-life cases in the United States Supreme Court, including Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dep’t of Health (1990), Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), Vacco v. Quill (1997), Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (2006), Gonzales v. Oregon (2006), Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (2007) and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022). He has also submitted briefs in most federal courts of appeals and a majority of the state supreme courts in the United States. He has represented Texas Alliance for Life and Members of the Texas General Assembly in briefs defending the Texas Human Life Protection Act in the Texas Supreme Court and the Prenatal Protection Act in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Mr. Linton also drafted both of those laws.

Mr. Linton has published more than thirty law review articles on a variety of topics, including the history of abortion regulation and the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence, state equal rights amendments, criminal law, sex discrimination, same-sex marriage, assisted suicide, and religious freedom, as well as multiple articles in journals of opinion. He has also published the only comprehensive analysis of abortion rights claims under state constitutions, ABORTION UNDER STATE CONSTITUTIONS A State-by-State Analysis (Carolina Academic Press) (3d ed. 2020). He received his undergraduate (B.A. Honors) and law (J.D.) degrees from the Loyola University of Chicago.