Curriculum Vitae & Biography

Jaye Ramsey Sutter, J.D., teaches 2301 and 2302 National, State, and Local Government I & II both in person and on line.  She has been with HCC-Southwest since 1992.  She also teaches criminal justices courses such as introduction to criminal justice, crime in America, criminal law, criminal procedure, and court systems. 

Jaye is the granddaughter of sharecroppers and oil field workers.  Her grandparents ended their formal educations in elementary school to farm and support their parents.  Her father was raised in a house with a dirt floor.  Her mother did not have electricity until she was nine years old when Franklin Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Program brought power to her rural northern Louisiana town.  Her parents were the first children in their families to graduate from high school. 

Sutter is a 2004 graduate of South Texas College of Law, a 1988 graduate of Baylor University's School of Graduate Studies with a Master of Arts in political science and 1984 graduate of Baylor University's undergraduate program with a Bachelor of Arts in foreign service and telecommunications. Before transferring to Baylor, Jaye was an undergrad at North Texas State University where she majored in radio-television-film and was the morning news director of KNTU-FM.  She was a member of academic honor societies and made the Dean's List. Before enrolling at North Texas, Jaye graduated in the top ten percent of her high school class at Nimitz High School in Irving, Texas.  Jaye was president of her senior class of 1980, president of the National Honor Society, editor of the high school newspaper, had a minor role in the senior class play production, captain of the high school debate team, a state qualified orator and extemporaneous speaker for three years, a member of the speech and debate society for four years, and was the first woman to earn a letter in swimming her freshman year in high school. Upon graduating, she was recognized by faculty and administrators as "Miss Nimitz High School."  

After attending North Texas for two years, Jaye transferring to Baylor University.  After her junior year, Jaye took a summer off from academic pursuits in 1983 to travel extensively through Finland and the Soviet Union including Moscow and Leningrad. She also traveled in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhastan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzebekistan. Upon returning, Jaye completed her last year as an undergrad with a 4.0 and earned a place in academic honor societies and on the Dean's List.  Jaye's 1988 Master's Thesis concerned the United States' military invasion of the Soviet Union in 1918 and she was included in Who's Who at American College's and Universities. 

Jaye does political consulting and advocacy with candidates in the Democratic Party. She recently successfully managed a Texas civil district court primary campaign in Harris County in 2004. She is currently a "new media" consultant for a Texas gubernatorial campaign.

At South Texas College of Law,  Jaye studied, Appellate Advocacy, Family Law Trial Advocacy, Constitutional Law, Recent Supreme Court Cases, First Amendment Cases, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Oil & Gas, and Wills, Trusts, Estates and Guardianships. Jaye attended South Texas part time while teaching full time at Houston Community College--Southwest. She interned at People for the American Way as a community organizer with "Unlock the Vote" helping prison populations and criminal justice administrators understand that convicted felons are eligible to vote once they are "off paper." She also handled family law litigation for indigent clients with Houston Volunteer Lawyers. Upon completing her degree, Jaye had the distinct honor of clerking for one of her former law professors, Neil McCabe, who entered private practice with legendary trial lawyer and philanthropist John O'Quinn. 

Before joining the HCCS faculty in 1992, Jaye was the History and Government Department Chair in Borger, Texas at Frank Phillips College where she taught western civilization, American history, United States and Texas government.  She taught classes in person and on the college television network.  While a full time member of the Frank Phillips' faculty, she took graduate classes in American History at West Texas State University.

Jaye worked as a bill tracker and legislative analyst for another Texas legend, Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox. She later joined his campaign as a writer and push poll manager during the Democratic Party Primary for Texas Governor. Jaye also taught government and political science at Austin Community College and regularly guest lectured on bill tracking and legislative analysis.  Jaye also worked a legislative session in the Texas Legislature as the administrative assistant for colorful and effective House of Representatives' member Betty Denton, D-Waco. She worked as a radio news reporter and anchor and television news producer in Waco while in graduate school at Baylor. She left those positions to campaign for John Ben Sutter for McLennan County Judge.  Jaye worked as a legal assistant and process server on the legal defense team in the federal RICO trial, United States v. Vic Feazell in 1987.

Jaye is married to the marvelous John Ben Sutter, J.D. who is with the HCC-Southeast government department faculty. John Ben is a political consultant, speechwriter, press secretary, political candidate, and former television weatherman and reporter. They have four Boston terriers, Jasmine, Hannah, Lola, and Stella and four cats, E.B., Bobcat, and Callie and the feral Ben-Ben. Jaye's hobbies include managing a bill tracking and legislative analysis website, editing several writing projects, and searching for the perfect handbag.

Education

North Texas State University, 60 hours, radio-television-film, 1980-1983

Baylor University, B.A., foreign service, M.A., political science 1984, 1988

Master's Thesis: Arrogance of Intervention:  The United States Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1918-1920 Baylor University Texas Collection, 1988.

Southwest Texas State University, 15 hours, secondary teaching certificate, government 1990

West Texas A&M University, 9 hours, American History 1991

South Texas College of Law, Doctorate of Jurisprudence (J.D.) 2004

Spring, 2010 Teaching Schedule
GOVT    2302    Amer Gov Nat/Sta/Local II 20312 1/19/10 5/16/10 Distance Education On line--must be able to use computers
GOVT    2302    Amer Gov Nat/Sta/Local II 23458 1/19/10 5/16/10 Distance Education On line--must be able to use computers
GOVT    2302    Amer Gov Nat/Sta/Local II 20252 1/19/10 5/16/10 Distance Education On line--must be able to use computers

CRIJ    1301    Intro to Criminal Justice 31859 1/19/10 5/16/10      MOCC205 M W 09.30 AM    11.00 AM--all exams taken on the Internet     
CRIJ    1307    Crime in America           31860 1/19/10 5/16/10      MOCC205 M W 11.00 AM    12.30 PM--all exams taken on the Internet

GOVT    2301    Amer Gov Nat/Sta/Local I  31865 1/19/10 5/16/10 MOCC204 T R  09.30 AM   11.00 AM--all exams taken on the Internet
GOVT    2302    Amer Gov Nat/Sta/Local II 24380 1/19/10 5/16/10 MOCC204 T R  11.00 AM   12.30 PM--all exams taken on the Internet

To the Present Visitors

By W.S. Merwin

Now we come to the famous classroom
where every year a fortunate few
in the days of their youth study
autumn forgetting the numbers beforehand
as they have been doing since the words
were all in Latin no cameras
allowed in here notice the slight breeze
from the windows here among the trees
and the fragrance at the end of spring
notice the leaves outside the window frames
the new green in the light of morning
notice the charts of colors on the walls
set in order and the moons in the calendars
the constellations the dark dials
the portraits of flowers still as the tables
here they study what is too far away
ever to grasp and too near to recognize
notice the leaves changing as we watch
then it will be summer and these studies
will be over and then it will be autumn
and most of them will be forgotten
notice the bell in place outside the door
and the dog lying near the foot of the stairs
waiting for a time that she remembers