AUSTIN -- Leading and breaking barriers is nothing new for Mayor Pro-Tem Sheryl Cole, Austin's first Black female Council Member.
"There were a few concerned in the community about a female in that position because the African American community has faced so many challenges in Austin and whether or not you could stand up for the African American interest," Cole said. "And I think I've done that."
Cole has a track record of proving women can be successful leaders, even on a soccer field. She coached her youngest son's first soccer team while her husband Kevin coached their older son. She was the only female coach in the league.
"We won no games that year," said Kevin Cole.
"We won all the games! Me and my baby," Cole said.
She grew up in Wichita Falls and came to the University of Texas in 1982 to study accounting. After graduation, she and Kevin married and both attended UT law school.
"I practiced law about 15 years. And my kids were in school and I got real active in the PTA," said Cole.
In 2004, she tri-chaired an effort to pass Austin Independent School District's largest bond campaign.
"AISD had leaky roofs, run over toilets, electric wires that were hanging from the ceiling. It was just so obvious that the schools were in such disrepair that I really wanted to make a difference," Cole said.
The bond passed, launching Cole into politics. She has served as a member of the Austin City Council for eight years and was unanimously voted to serve as Mayor Pro-Tem by her fellow council members in 2011.
"Just because she's soft spoken, she's low key, does not mean that you should take her for granted or underestimate her," Kevin Cole said. "She will fight for the things she believes are worth fighting for."
Case in point, affordable housing. When a housing bond proposition failed in 2012, Cole led the effort to gather stakeholders and put it back on the ballot. The second time around, it passed. The bond money provides for programs that impact what Cole says is Austin's top issue, affordability.
"We need to rewrite the land development code, which I have lead in that effort to make it simpler, so that it is actually cheaper to build housing. And we actually have to also increase the supply of housing," Cole explained.
She also wants to develop mixed use housing along transit lines, challenge the appraisal district and ensure commercial property owners are paying their share of property taxes, instead of appealing and putting a burden on homeowners.
Ideas will become priorities if she can break another barrier and become Austin's first Black mayor, leading the new 10-1 system of government .
"It's going to be very important to have a leader who has a record, not just talks about it, but an actual record of bringing all types of people together," said Cole.