Meet Our Staff

David Bolduc became the Acting Public Counsel in November 2022. Before that, he served as the Deputy Public Counsel, and was in the Office of Policy Development Counsel at the Texas Department of Insurance. His other governmental experience includes serving as General Counsel at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Division Chief and Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the Texas Attorney General, and Deputy General Counsel at the Texas Department of Agriculture. He has also founded or been employed at 6 private law practices.

He serves as the agency’s general counsel, acts as the agency’s human resources lead, assists with payroll and budget matters, develops and maintains agency policy manuals, and performs other duties as assigned.

Patricia Zapata joined OPIC in 1997 and serves many functions under the title of Chief of Operations. She currently handles the agency’s purchasing, accounting, human resources, payroll, and benefits functions.

As chief financial officer, Patricia periodically prepares budget reports to the Legislative Budget Board, the Comptroller of Public Accounts, and the Governor’s Budget and Policy Division. As the agency’s sole Spanish-speaker, she is happy to help Spanish-speaking consumers with their insurance related issues.

Melissa Heggen is the Chief Actuary at OPIC. She is responsible for the review and analysis of personal lines rate filings as well as insurance market research. 

Talia Bright serves as OPIC’s Policy Analyst, assisting in personal lines insurance policy form review and analysis; and maintenance of the agency’s Policy Comparison Tool. 

Riki Lee Burhans is our Communications & Media Specialist responsible for all communications at OPIC. Riki manages our website, social media channels, and creates all our communications materials. She also serves as the agency’s Information Security Officer and Information Resource Manager.

Christina joined OPIC in 2012 and serves as our Office Manager and most recently started training for Purchaser. As Office Manager, she wears many hats such as: building maintenance liaison, Wellness Coordinator, Safety Officer, compiles new hires’ onboarding documentation, Parking Coordinator, assists staff attorneys as requested, etc.

Mary Alice joined our agency in 2002 and serves as OPIC’s Administrative Assistant III. Though her primary role is as rate/policy form filing intake and lead receptionist, she also handles the agency’s asset/property management and is the agency’s runner. Mary also assists staff attorneys and other professional staff as requested.