Women to Know: Kristie Ince is shaping Lake Highlands through leadership and community

On any given weekday, the Lake Highlands High School PTA president might be brainstorming with Principal Kerri Jones or whipping through a board agenda like a Samurai warrior. She prides herself on efficient meetings and quantifiable results.

On weekends, she might be at a Wildcat football game cheering on her son Conrad, tracking the world travels of her oldest daughter and recent Aggie graduate Haley, or running down to College Station to celebrate Kappa Kappa Gamma Mom’s Weekend at Texas A&M University with daughter Brooke.

Other nights, though, you’ll find her at Lake Highlands’ most popular dive bar. Inside, the lights are dim, the beer is cold and the sound of clicking billiard balls competes with Willie Nelson on the jukebox. At King’s X, Ince’s name is familiar — she’s one of the owners.

Ince and her husband Brant bought King’s X with four other Lake Highlands families in 2016 when the previous owner opted to retire. They were fans of the fun neighborhood hang out, and they didn’t want the popular local spot to go away. Ince admits the King’s X may look “a little scary” from the outside but says, “It’s more like a scene from Cheers” once you open the door.

“Everyone knows everyone, and most people have been coming for years to have a drink after work or a nightcap. We could have never imagined how owning the King’s X would impact our lives. Brant jokes that no one really knows or understands what he does for an actual living, they only want to discuss the dive bar.”

Owning a neighborhood hangout is about as far from Ince’s vision for the future as she could get.

She studied liberal arts, German and philosophy at the University of Texas and  finished her degree at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany while studying abroad, working as a dishwasher to pay her way.

In 1993, she returned to Austin to work with State Rep. Kenny Marchant at the State Capitol. Ann Richards was still governor then, and dealmakers had to be quick-witted to get what they wanted for their constituents. Soon after, she was promoted to chief clerk of the banking committee for the House of Representatives.

“Working at the capitol was my first real job after college, and it turned into my entire career. Talk about an eye-opening experience,” she recalls. “The legislative sessions are like drinking from a fire hose. It is 140 days of insanely fast-paced hard work with early mornings and very late nights.”

Ince says those experiences taught her how to work hard, negotiate, pay attention to detail and build relationships.

“The most important lesson I learned was how important our system of government is, and how important it is for us as citizens to understand and be involved in it,” she says. “Historically, things have always been crazy in politics, and I don’t think what we are experiencing now is really anything new but rather, the issues of our times. At the end of the day, we need to appreciate that we have a working system of government that is not perfect, but we would much rather live in a country where we have a system and rights rather than not.”

Ince later went to work for State Sen. David Cain, and they partnered with then Gov. George W. Bush to pass The Texas Property Taxpayer Bill of Rights. She left in 2000 to work as a regulatory vice president for Time Warner Telecommunications.

“Working in politics and government ingrained in me the importance of relationships and the bond of your word,” Ince says. “When you negotiate for a living, people have to know they can trust you because every deal is based on mutual trust — especially the big ones.”

You’d think life’s pace would be slower these days compared to days at the state capital, but Ince laughs at the thought. In December, her home and pool house on a double lot in the Moss Haven neighborhood was featured on the Lake Highlands Women’s League Holiday in the Highlands Home Tour, which earned $236,595 for neighborhood nonprofits, local schools and college scholarships.

“Brant and I are happy to support Lake Highlands,” she says. “Being on the home tour was a great way to partner with the Lake Highlands Women’s League to make a significant contribution to our graduating seniors and community charities. As a member of the league, I have been a part of many home tours, but being on the tour was so different. It was a lot of hard work to get the house ready, but it was such a great experience to be supported and thanked by the community for doing it. We attended the LHWL meeting where the scholarships were presented, and it was rewarding for us to see all the very deserving LH seniors who benefited from the home tour.”