Officers
Officers are selected for the USA Fencing season, which runs from August 1 to July 31. The Division Board includes the officers, and a representative and alternate from each member club.
Liz Mayerich
Division Chair
Coach/Owner, Houston Sword Sports. Liz has been fencing for almost 20 years and coaching since 2005. She has been a member of the division for almost all of that career, minus a five-year stint in central Illinois. She has experience in communications, website development, and poking people until they finish their tasks.
Susie Grace
Division Armorer
"I got into armory when I got tired of paying our club armorer to fix my son's equipment. Went to Armorer's College in the early 2000s, and been at it ever since."
Maggie Newell
Division Vice-Chair
Maggie's been a member of the division for six years and has served on local and regional bout committees. She's the associate director for education, outreach, and policy governance in MD Anderson's Institutional Compliance Office and has 30 years of experience in communications.
Kathy Machol
Division Treasurer
Other than 6 weeks every school year for 3 years in high school, Kathy has been fencing since 2004. She was qualified to fence vet at that time. She was a member and for many years the secretary/treasurer of the Galveston Fencing Club. As such, she has assisted in coaching the kids’ class, and served on the bout committee for the tournaments held by GFC. She and her husband, John, moved to Houston in March 2023 and she started fencing at Houston Sword Sports, while still traveling to Galveston every week for about 6 months. She has served as the treasurer of the division since 2023. Kathy is a retired Navy social worker and is also retired from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She is the mother of Liz Mayerich, so she and John have been members of HSS since its inception. Besides Liz and her family, she has a son, Tom, who still lives in Galveston with his girlfriend.