Danielle Jaussaud

Danielle Jaussaud was born in Morocco of French parents in 1946. Europeans who settled in the French colonies of North Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries are called "Black Feet." Danielle is third generation "Black Feet," but she has since left the tribe and settled in Texas.

She didn't come to Texas directly from Morocco. She spent her high school years in Bordeaux, France, and graduated with a BA degree in English literature from the University of Grenoble, France. She returned to Morocco and taught English at a high school in Casablanca for three years, but decided teaching wasn't her calling.

Back in high school, her friends had read and interpreted the tea leaves, concluding that her future was to be a spy, or a journalist. Over the years, she was a little of both. Her stint as a spy/counterspy happened in 1973 Germany and is documented in her book, The Dilsberg Engagement: Love, Dissent and Reprisals. Then, in 1976-77, she worked at the CBS News bureau in Cairo, Egypt.

She came to Texas in 1977 with her then husband Mike McDougal, himself a native. In 1978, she started graduate school in Economics at UT Austin and later worked as an energy efficiency program economist with the city of Austin, then as an electricity market economist with the state of Texas until retirement in 2011.

Born and raised in North Africa, having spent her young adult years in the UK, France and Germany, a naturalized citizen of the United States since 1984, Danielle Jaussaud considers herself a citizen without borders. She dreams of a world without war, and of government by the people for the people--a true democracy.