Charles Porter, Ph.D. is an accomplished and award-winning author, speaker, testifying real
estate expert in over 700 cases nationwide, and served in various faculty teaching roles at St.
Edward’s University 2008 – 2023. In 2016 he earned a Ph.D. in Economics and Business from
the Universitat Jaume I in Spain with “Cum Laude” distinction. He is also a nationally
recognized water rights expert.
He served as the elected Chair of the Education Standards Committee of the Texas Real Estate
Commission in 2022, served as co-author of TREC’s Legal I and Legal II 2022-2023 Manual
Writing Committee and TREC’s Broker Responsibility Manual for 2022-2023. He also serves as
Alternate to the TREC Broker/Lawyer Committee.
He also serves as Chair of Advisory Council of the Briscoe Center for American History at the
University of Texas and is a founding member of the Director’s Circle. He was recently elected
President of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Austin State Supported Living Center.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Realtors for the term 2017-
2024 and drafted the final revisions in NAR national water policies in 2020. He was recently
elected to serve as a Board of Director member of Texas Realtors (formerly the Texas
Association of Realtors).
He has authored 42 continuing education textbooks for use in Texas Real Estate Commission
continuing education credit classes and teaches these classes regularly across Texas. His most
recent trade magazine article “What’s a Cap Rate?” was published in Texas Realtor in their
January/February 2023 issue.
He served as a panelist at the Texas Water Development Board’s Water for Texas Conference in
January, 2023 invited by John Dupnik, head of the Groundwater Division of the TWDB.
He also was the keynote speaker for Post Oak Savannah Groundwater District’s Broker seminar
in 2022 and again in 2023.
His previous college textbook is titled Public Water Policies: The Ultimate Weapons of Social
Control (New York and London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). His upcoming fall 2023 college
textbook is again being published by Rowman & Littlefield outlining the guide to discovering
water rights in all 50 states in the United States titled Water Rights and Policies in the United
States: A Path Through the Maze. For Taylor and Francis /Routledge, he authored a chapter in
the college textbook The World of American West titled “The Hydraulic West: The History of
Irrigation.”
He is also the author of Sharing the Common Pool: Water Rights in the Everyday Lives of
Texans (College Station: Texas A & M Press, 2014) and Spanish Water/Anglo Water (College
Station: Texas A & M Press, 2009) winner of the 2011 San Antonio Conservation Society
Publication Award and the 2011 Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association
Book Award for outstanding published book contributing to a better understanding of Spanish
Colonial Texas.
He won The Texas Catholic Historical Society’s Catholic Southwest Journal of History and
Culture 2009 Robert S. Weddle Award for his journal article “Querétaro in Focus: The
Franciscan Missionary Colleges and the Texas Missions.” He won The East Texas Historical
Association’s East Texas Historical Journal’s 2013 Chamberlain Award for the article “The
History of W. A. East v. Houston and Texas Central Railway Company, 1904:
Establishment of the Rule of Capture in Texas Water Law or ‘He Who Has the Biggest
Pump Gets the Water’.”
He served on the National Parks Service Expert Committee to assist the San Antonio Missions
receive UNESCO’s World Heritage Designation as the Spanish Colonial water rights/acequia
expert.
With Ed McCarthy, Esq. he authored “Methods and Challenges in the Credible Valuation of
Water Rights in Texas” that was presented at the University of Texas School of Law’s Texas
Water Institute. He authored “Of Urgent Concern – What Prompted House Bill 162, the
Groundwater Conservation Act of 1949” which appeared in the peer-reviewed academic
journal Panhandle Plains Historical Review, Vol. LXXXVIII, 2017 (published in January 2018).
In November 2019, he authored “Build Your Competency” an article that was published in
Texas Realtor Magazine in which he analyzed the revised duties of real estate license holders to
be geographically competent in the area in which they serve. With Gary Pate, Esq., he authored
“Navigating Seller’s Disclosure After Harvey” which appeared in Texas Realtor Magazine in
November, 2017. In 2015, he authored and published the article titled “What you need to know
about mineral rights” that appeared in the January/February 2-15 issue of Texas Realtor
Magazine.
His teaching awards at St. Edward’s University include the Outstanding Capstone Instructor
2015, 2013 Hudspeth Award for Innovative Teaching, the 2011 St. Edward’s University
Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award, and the 2011 Best Adjunct Professor of the Schools of
Behavioral and Social Sciences and University Programs.
Additionally, Porter was a 2008 Presidential Award Winner at St. Edward’s, the St. Edward’s
Outstanding Masters of Liberal Arts Graduate in 2008, and won the Academic Excellence
Award in the Master of Liberal Arts in 2008 also at St. Edward’s for achieving a 4.0 GPA.
He was awarded the Peacemaker Award by the Austin Dispute Resolution Center in 2007.
His current local civic service includes being recently elected President of the Friends of the
Austin State Supported Living Center Board of Directors and was elected Deputy Grand
Knight of St. John Neumann Church’s Knights of Columbus.
He was elected and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Austin Board of
Realtors in 2007 and also served as a member of the Board or Directors for 7 years.
He authors and teaches several certified professional continuing education courses for the Texas
Real Estate Commission, The Waters of the United States Ruling 2023, Introduction to Texas
Water Rights, Introduction to Texas Water Rights for Commercial and Industrial Brokers,
Advanced Farm and Ranch Contracts, Farm and Ranch for Texas Agents, Water Rights for
Texas Agents, Mineral Rights for Texas Agents, Advanced Water Rights for Texas Agents (co-authored with Jason T. Hill, Esq.), Advanced Farm and Ranch for Texas Agents (co-authored
with Jason T. Hill, Esq.), Mediate, Arbitrate, Litigate, and Commercial Finance for Agents.
His continuing education class Water Rights for Texas Agents won Best Ethics Education
Award in the State of Texas in 2008. Mediate, Arbitrate, Litigate won Best Education Award in
the State of Texas in 2005.