While reflecting on a work history split almost evenly between top local television markets and high-level fundraising for nonprofits, Angela Johnson Synek ’87 came to think of shining a light on others as her superpower.  

At stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston — the top two markets in Texas — she promoted TV news with an eye toward making a difference in the lives of viewers. After a decade-long hiatus to stay at home with her young daughter, Synek reentered the workforce with the expressed intention of helping others. Her efforts have provided opportunities for low-income children and improved mental health in her community. Now she is generating support for neurological research from autism to Alzheimer’s.  

“TCU was the genesis of everything I’ve done,” said Synek, who in March became director of advancement at the Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. “The truest statement I can make to you is that every great thing in my life can track back to the Moudy building at TCU.” 

Upward Bound

As a student at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Synek felt the lure of the college campus a few miles down the road. “We’re a Horned Frog family,” she said. “My parents did not attend TCU, and I’m a first-gen grad, but it was an expectation that I would.”  

She was on a pre-law track when James Riddlesperger, professor of political science, told her that she didn’t think like a lawyer; it turned out she was more of a storyteller. Synek was minoring in radio, TV and film at the time and promptly made that her major.  

“Dr. Riddlesperger was the most dear professor imaginable,” she said. “He could have said nothing to me, and I might have continued to struggle.” 

Working at the campus radio station, KTCU-FM, gave her an early taste of success.  

“I covered a lot of extra DJ shifts over the holidays because I lived in Fort Worth,” she said. “I loved every minute.” 

She fell hard for visual media while producing a class documentary on search and rescue teams around the state. The experience “lit me up and gave me so much joy,” she recalled.   

When she saw a part-time job posting at NBC 5/KXAS-TV in Fort Worth, she pursued the opportunity with typical enthusiasm. “I told them I would mop floors!” she said of the chance to get her foot in the door. The station brought her on 30 hours a week to help with clerical work. She quickly demonstrated her gifts in production and earned more responsibilities while managing a rigorous course load at school. 

“My classes at TCU had really taught me to think like an advertising or marketing person,” she said, “so I was focused on the end user and how they’d receive that information.”  

While at Nehemiah Center in Houston, Angela Synek helped raise up to $2 million in annual gifts. The TCU alum was also responsible for organizing three major fundraising events per year.

Upon graduating and joining the KXAS-TV team as a full-time employee, Synek quickly moved up the ranks of the promotions department. As director of marketing and production, she put her writing and communications skills to use while managing external promotions, copywriting, press junkets and more. She spent a decade at the NBC station. 

“She was getting accolades for these different promotions,” Kym Alvarado-Booth ’87 said of her classmate’s myriad awards, which include two Heartland Emmys for writing, producing and directing public service announcements at NBC 5. Synek received her third Emmy during her time at sister sports station KXTX-TV, for a Texas Rangers Baseball broadcast promotion. 

“The anchors absolutely loved her,” said Alvarado-Booth, a childhood friend of Synek’s who worked as a TV reporter in major markets in Texas and Pennsylvania. “She literally put them in the best possible light.”  

Synek worked with various TV anchors to create campaigns and spots to boost their profiles with audiences. She also relished every opportunity to make a difference in the community by creating public service announcements. 

“The idea that I could put together an on-air promotion that would almost immediately increase, let’s say, ticket sales for a Dallas Symphony Orchestra performance, or a diaper drive that would result in a year’s worth of donations,” she said, “that I could affect change like that — well, I loved that with all of my heart.”  

Synek moved to Houston for her then-husband’s job in the late 1990s and went to work for the UPN affiliate, KTXH-TV, for a couple of years. She paused her career for more than a decade to stay home with Sophie, her only child. 

Charitably Minded

In 2010, a friend coaxed Synek back to work to become director of development and communication at the Nehemiah Center in Houston, a faith-based nonprofit that seeks to enhance the educational and emotional lives of more than 500 low-income Houston children and their families. 

There, Synek helped raise up to $2 million in gifts each year, orchestrating three major fundraising events annually. She gathered and crunched data about stakeholders while creating communication strategies.  

Synek accepted a position at Mental Health America of Greater Houston in 2019. During her nearly five years with the organization, she led a three-person team responsible for raising more than $2.4 million. The organization offers resources and support to area nonprofits in the mental health arena. Synek often met with donors privately to ensure their funds went exactly where they wanted. 

“Building relationships with donors meant building trust,” said Synek, who oversaw events like the organization’s annual fundraising luncheon.  

“Building relationships with donors meant building trust.”
Angela Synek

In September 2023, more than 300 people gathered at Houston’s Briar Club, raising $230,000 in a single afternoon. Though suicide awareness and prevention might not seem an intuitive topic for a charity lunch, Synek and her colleague Sarah Barlament said the speakers, each of whom had either lost a family member or struggled with suicidal ideation themselves, riveted attendees with their insights and experiences. 

“The event was really impactful and a lot of that comes down to Angie,” said Barlament, the nonprofit’s marketing and communication manager. “Angie’s not going to put anything out there that is not the best of the best, and she’s willing to teach along the way.” 

“More than ever, it’s incumbent upon nonprofits to absolutely prove and show the impact they’re having,” Synek said of the shifting landscape of charitable giving. “People want to know why their dollars matter and how they’re changing the world.” 

Job Summit

During her five years of fundraising at Mental Health America of Greater Houston, Synek helped the organization buck national trends by growing the charity’s giving as well as its donor base; nationally, both have shrunk in the wake of Covid-19. After 2019’s annual giving campaign saw a 73 percent increase, the nonprofit’s donations continued to grow as much as 15 percent annually in the subsequent years.  

“Whether it’s a $5 donation or $10,000, Angie understands what it takes for someone to feel compelled to give, and she really wants to honor that,” Barlament said. “Her ethics with development are the highest I’ve ever seen.” 

In March 2024, Synek became the director of advancement at the Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, one of the top-rated and largest children’s hospitals in the country. 

“Angie really only does work that she cares about and that she feels is important,” Alvarado-Booth said.   

The work at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute impacts adults as well as children. More than 3,000 scientists in 10 labs are finding treatments for a range of neurological and developmental disorders including some degenerative diseases.  

“They’re taking findings in the pediatric realm and applying that to the span of a patient’s life or a patient’s family member’s life,” said Synek, whose job takes her around the country raising awareness and funds. 

“But the reality,” she said, “is that nothing happens without a donor.”