Philip Cortez

A south side San Antonio native, State Representative Dr. Philip Cortez was first elected in 2012 to serve his lifelong community as state representative for District 117. He earned his associate degree from Palo Alto Community College in 2000 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2002. Representative Cortez later earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2007. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Texas at Austin in December 2017. Prior to his position as state representative, Cortez was elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2009 to the San Antonio City Council. As councilman, he represented District 4, focusing on the development of the district’s neighborhoods and on improvement projects citywide. He fought to improve police and fire departments, clean up parks, and modernize libraries throughout the district. Mayor Julian Castro selected Cortez to serve as chairman of the Audit, Infrastructure and Growth Committees, President of the San Antonio Housing Trust Public Facility Corporation, and as a member of the Governance Committee. In 2019,…