Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa (Mel) Turnquist.
Hi Mel, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Texas Center for the Missing was formed in March of 2000 after the disappearance of 17-year-old Gabriel Lester who was reported missing from his private high school. Gabriel’s mother, a Houston-area businesswoman, decided after his remains were located four months later to turn her tragedy into a positive effort that would have an impact on missing children and their families in Greater Houston. Our founder’s story can be watched here: https://youtu.be/VS3OuCwJjsw
We at Texas Center for the Missing (TCM) strive to stay true to our founding mission to help searching families find hope.
Mel’s Story:
Born in Panama while my father served in the Navy, my family moved to Houston when I was still a very small child. I grew up in Southeast Houston and attended Texas A&M University — graduating in 1995 with Honors.
I began my nonprofit professional career at United Way of Greater Houston as a Major Gifts Officer where I trained volunteers on campaign best practices and grew the Women’s Initiative from a $10,000 campaign into a million-dollar campaign.
In 2005, the then-CEO of Texas Center for the Missing (TCM), Beth Alberts, recruited me to join her as the 2nd employee at TCM as Associate Director. After Beth’s retirement, I succeeded the interim CEO in October of 2023. During my tenure at TCM, my special projects have included: the creation of TCM’s Digital Law Enforcement Missing Persons Resource Kit; the S.A.F.E. Child Puppet Show; and coordination of the annual Missing in Southeast Texas Day event. I currently serve on the Harris County Child Abuse Task Force Board and the Human Trafficking Advisory Council serving Harris County.
As CEO of Texas Center for the Missing (TCM), I am responsible for financial accountability, board development, marketing, education and outreach, and fund development.
In my private life, I have a wonderful husband, 2 amazing teenage children, and I chair the Kinsmen Generosity Team as a volunteer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Overall, the work we do at Texas Center for the Missing has been the most rewarding of my professional career. Most of the professional challenges I face are concerns about raising the funds necessary to keep our doors open and maintaining a strong financial position. Many years ago, there was a discussion in December about whether Beth and I could afford skipping a paycheck to make the budget work. Fortunately, that never happened, but it was a precarious situation at the time. Since then, our Board and the community have supported us with transformational generosity and we are hopeful to hire a fourth employee in 2026 to expand our education and outreach efforts across Greater Houston.
The greatest challenge I currently face is ensuring we can provide the support needed by my 2 amazing colleagues who do the emotionally draining work of being on-call 24 hours a day 365 days per year. While most missing persons cases result in a family being reunited, the toll on our Case Manager and Emergency Alert Specialist when those outcomes are tragic cannot be over-stated.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Texas Center for the Missing (TCM) is a Houston-based 501c3 non-profit and is the Amber Alert, CLEAR Alert, Endangered Missing Persons Alert, AND Silver Alert provider for the 14-county Greater Houston Area. Contrary to popular misconception, Houston’s Amber Alert is supported by private donations and TCM receives ZERO government funding for this life-saving program.
TCM’s mission is to bring HOPE and HEALING to the missing and their families through crisis intervention, prevention, and community education. TCM offers these services related to child abductions, runaways, internet lures, and endangered adults.
To decrease the number of missing children, we at Texas Center for the Missing know that children and families need to be educated about how to remain safe. Prevention education is an important tool for communities across Houston. Texas Center for the Missing is the only agency offering internet safety Train-the-Trainer training to the community. Without these critical prevention education programs, children and parents are less prepared to protect themselves against the dangers of online predators.
Law enforcement agencies need access to training on how and when to activate local Emergency Alerts. Without Texas Center for the Missing programs, Houston would lose a critical resource for law enforcement during the most sensitive time in a missing persons investigation. Due to the relationships cultivated within the law enforcement community, staff are available 24-hours a day, 7 days each week to provide information and to assist in the activation of Emergency Alerts for the most vulnerable of the missing persons population, regardless of age. No other organization (including law enforcement training academies) offers ANY Emergency Alert activation training, missing persons investigation resources, and 24-hour support to first responders and the investigators who support them.
The community at large needs to be aware of the painful challenges of missing persons cases. When family members are searching for a missing loved one, they often need regular emotional support. Law enforcement simply cannot provide that service due to the overwhelming numbers of missing persons cases. (The Harris County Sheriff’s Office worked 2,473 missing person cases in 2024 with just 4 investigators. The Houston Police Department worked 8,260 missing person cases in 2024, and the Missing Persons Unit only has 15 investigators.) With TCM’s experience in serving the community and our close relationship with law enforcement, we are able to shoulder the emotional side so that law enforcement can focus on the INVESTIGATION while TCM Staff members provide the health and human services available to left-behind families. Without the staff at Texas Center for the Missing, families could remain in turmoil not knowing what the next steps should be in their efforts to bring a loved one home.
TCM provides Internet Safety Presentations to thousands of children and parents each year and works with families and law enforcement agencies on an annual average of 250 missing persons cases.
Since its founding in 2000, TCM has directly served more than 500,200 children and families. In addition, TCM has trained 8,400 law enforcement officers and provided assistance in more than 2,900 missing persons cases. Through 2024, Houston’s Amber Alert has issued 221 Amber Alerts for 271 endangered missing children with a 96% rate of safe recovery and is credited with saving 129 children out of the 1,268 recoveries directly attributed to the Amber Alert nationwide.
We are at-the-ready to activate community resources 24/7 to get a missing at-risk child or endangered adult home quickly and safely. Your support directly affects our ability to serve the Greater Houston community with the best and most time efficient resources available.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Personally, I define success by making a difference in the lives of others.
Professionally, the answer is similar but with specific outcomes. Short-term successes are reflected in self-reported and anticipated attitudinal and behavioral changes (e.g., better supervision of children, less correspondence with strangers online, etc.) of those trained in internet safety. In the long-term, we endeavor to determine if lessons learned have been implemented and if other Texas Center for the Missing programs have been accessed.
For law enforcement partner services/training, success is defined by the officers’ projected capacity to respond to endangered missing person incidents and the percentage of emergency alerts resulting in safe recovery of the missing person.
For case management programs, success is defined by the number of families reunited.
Pricing:
- A $100 gift provides educational materials for 50 families.
- A $250 gift provides Child ID kits for an entire grade level.
- A $500 gift provides internet safety training for 250 children.
- A $1,000 gift activates an Amber Alert for one at-risk missing child.
- A $2,500 gift provides Houston Regional Emergency Alert Activation training for 500 investigators.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://centerforthemissing.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/txcenterforthemissing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TXCenter
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/texas-center-for-the-missing
- Twitter: https://x.com/TXCenter
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/theTXCenter
- Other: https://centerforthemissing.org/champions-for-children/
Image Credits
Kevin McGowan Photography (for all photo images)
