Trinidad (“Trini”) Mendenhall Sosa

Ms. Trinidad (“Trini”) Mendenhall Sosa is the President of Fulton Shopping Center. Trini is the Founder and Chairman of the Trini and O.C. Mendenhall Foundation.

Trini is active in numerous professional and civic organizations, in addition to her service as a member of the Baylor College of Medicine Board of Trustees, where she serves as Vice Chair of the Capital Campaign Committee. She is a member of The Board of The Ronald McDonald House, serves on the RMH Long Range Planning Committee and is a Gala Chair for the 2008 RMH Gala. In 2007, Trini was appointed by Mayor White to the Houston Parks Board. She also serves on the Board of the CHRISTUS Foundation for HealthCare and on the Archdiocese of the Galveston-Houston Development Board. She is also a member of the University of Houston’s Center for Mexican American Studies Excellence Endowment Campaign, the Advisory Council of the Yellowstone Park Foundation, the United Way Women’s Initiative and the Alexis de Tocqueville Society. She was selected as a member of the Center for Houston’s Future Leadership Forum Class of 2003.

Ms. Mendenhall Sosa served for 12 years on the Board of the Harris County Child Protective Services and chaired its Capital Campaign Committee. In June of 2007, she completed a six-year tenure on the Board of the University of St. Thomas where she chaired the Development Committee, and was a member of the Executive Committee. Upon departure from the UST Board, Trini established the Mendenhall Achievement Center. Trini also served for six years on the Board of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Trini has received numerous awards in recognition of her service to the community. She has been selected by Catholic Charities as its 2008 Gala Honoree. In 2007, she received the SAVVY Award. In 2005, Trini was the Zina Garrison All Court Tennis Academy Honoree and the University of St. Thomas’ Mardi Gras Honoree. She was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2004 and also received the Volunteer of the Year Award for the Houston Region from the Texas Council of Child Welfare Boards. In 2003, she was the Women’s Fund Honoree. Trini was the recipient of the Willie Vasquez Hispanic Excellence Award in 2000. She was also named one of “Houston’s 2000 Millennium Makers,” presented by the Evan Thayer Foundation. She was named “ABC Channel 13 Woman of Distinction” for the year 2000, presented by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. In the past decade, she has chaired numerous civic groups whose activities focused on benefiting the Houston community.

A native Texan from San Antonio; Trini has lived in Houston for 33 years. She attended San Antonio College, Southwest Texas University, and the University of Houston. She was a former Principal of Fiesta Mart, Inc., a 50 store grocery retail chain in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Fiesta Mart, Inc. was founded by her late husband, Mr. O.C. Mendenhall, along with Mr. Donald Bonham. Upon Mr. Mendenhall’s death, Trini served as Vice Chair.

Trini, remarried in 2005, to Mr. Frank Sosa. She has one son and is a devoted grandmother of two.