Teresa Lavery

Position: Legislative aide, energy, the environment and natural resources, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)

Age: 33

Hometown: Dallas

{mosads}Marital status/children: Single

Last job: Deputy chief of staff and legislative director for Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas)

First job: Ticket-taker at a local amusement park

Most unusual job: “I worked part-time at a flower shop for fun. I did front sales, took care of plants and sometimes got to help the designers with arrangements.”

Most embarrassing moment: “An outing with my family to a Dallas restaurant. I was 5 or 6 and insisted that I didn’t need help getting to and from the bathroom, though it was a big dining room. So my parents relented and watched me go in, but on my way back to our table, I sat down with a different family. I didn’t realize it, and just sat down and announced, ‘See, I told you I could do it!’ Meanwhile, my family was calling me over to their table as everyone laughed. Red-faced, I ran back to my family — just a bit too big for my britches.”

Management style: “I’ve found you have to have a spirit of service and be willing to do any job, even if it isn’t your job at that particular moment. Pitch in, work to solve the problem. Constituents don’t know your job duties.”

Number of cups of coffee you drink per day: Zero

Religion: Catholic

Favorite political TV show or movie: Movie — “The Deal,” about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown

Most inspirational figure: “My grandfather, who was a B-29 pilot in the Pacific theater in World War II. He demonstrated essential lessons for life — trust in God, have a good laugh, enjoy your family and friends, do right by others and do what needs doing.”

Dream job (not including present one): “I hope to own a performance theater much later in life. I’d like to host big bands and put on musicals and plays.”

College: Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas

Passion outside work: Travel, catching up with friends, visiting a good art or history museum, going to movies, shows

Claim to fame: “I make no personal claims of fame, but have seven wonderful nieces and nephews, ages 6-15. If they still think I’m their cool aunt when I come home to visit, that’s good enough for me.”

Theresa Lavery was inspired to head to Washington while working at Equity Options stock brokerage in Dallas during the 2000 presidential election. It was then that she realized the extent of the federal government’s power.

“Financial markets would stop based on waiting to hear what the [Supreme Court] had said about the election [recount],” recalled Lavery, who joined  Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) office in October as a legislative aide for energy and environment issues.

{mosads}Once the court ruled, “orders would start coming in, phones would start ringing,” she said.

Lavery, however, wanted to get to the heart of influence. She had long had a desire to pursue a career in public service and finally acted on it in the wake of that election.

In January 2001, Lavery started working for Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who was her congressman growing up. She was able to put her financial-services expertise to use right away — “When I first got to the Hill, Enron and all those things were breaking,” she remembered. But under the tutelage of Barton, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee at the time, she also became interested in energy issues.

Lavery made the switch to the Senate because she wanted a closer seat to policymaking.