Local Leadership
2024-2025 Board of Directors
Board retreat 2023
Bios
Cynthia Mickens Ross
Pastor Dr. Cynthia Mickens Ross is a Notable Author, Speaker, Coach and Founder & CEO of Cynthia Mickens Ministries, Inc. & Enterprises, LLC. With an unrivaled dynamism and an innate charisma, Dr. Mickens Ross understands the intricate mechanisms of personal evolution and has committed herself to the mission of guiding individuals in their quest to unearth the destiny they were designed to manifest. Her counsel reverberates with the wisdom of seeking significance through connection with The Almighty God rather than relying on the judgments and opinions of others. Driven by her own revelation of purpose and fortified by her resolved path, Dr. Mickens Ross stands resolute in her determination to coach and guide others to their divine destinies.
At the core of her transformative portfolio is the meticulously crafted book, "Path~Way to Purpose® Stories of Victory, and the three-phase 12-week courses, "Path~Way to Purpose®," which serves as a wellspring of guidance in unraveling the tapestry of one's life purpose and subsequently, living a life that resonates with extraordinary meaning. She has graced the worldwide airwaves, television screens, stages, and platforms, further amplifying her impactful message.
She finds immense gratification in her multifaceted role of delivering compelling keynote addresses, coaching senior executives to realize their fullest potential, and offering invaluable personal development and life coaching. Dr. Cynthia Mickens Ross aims to act as a luminous catalyst for profound transformation, a beacon of hope and insightfulness, and an anchored guide on the odyssey towards personal evolution and fulfillment.
Debbie Dennis
Debbie Dennis is Oncor Electric Delivery’s Chief Customer Officer, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer. In her current role she has responsibility for customer service, community relations, economic development, branding and communications, as well as all human resource functions. She is also responsible for the strategic direction of Oncor’s philanthropy, community involvement and employee engagement initiatives. In her over 40 years with the Company, Dennis has worked in a number of corporate and customer service functions.
Dennis currently serves on the Board and Executive Committee of the Dallas Regional Chamber and a number of non-profit boards including the Baylor Scott and White Health and Wellness Institute Board (Chair), International Women’s Forum of Dallas Board and is a member of the Texas Women’s Foundation Economic Leadership Council.
Dennis graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree. She is the 2023 WiNGS Ebby Empowering Women Award recipient, the 2020 Athena Award Recipient from the Dallas Regional Chamber, a recipient of the 2019 Audrey Kaplan Inspiring Women Southwest Award from the Southwest Jewish Congress and an honoree of the Dallas Business Journal’s 2018 Women in Business. She is also a graduate of Leadership America, Leadership Texas, Leadership Dallas and a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Dallas Assembly, International Women’s Forum and Executive Women’s Roundtable.
Cheryl Alston
Cheryl D. Alston is the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Employees’ Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas, Texas, a $3.7+ billion pension plan for the City’s civilian employees. Cheryl received a Presidential Appointment from President Barack Obama to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Advisory Committee and served two terms from 2011-2016. Cheryl is active in the community and has served on nonprofit boards and foundations including the Texas Women’s Foundation, The Arts Community Alliance (TACA), VolunteerNow, and the Clara Lionel Foundation. Cheryl was recognized by D CEO Magazine Power 500, Institutional Investor magazine, Dallas Power 50, and the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC) Pacesetter award
Karyl Innis
Karyl Innis is a career expert, the Founder and CEO of The Innis Company, a global career management firm headquartered in Dallas, Tx. She is an advisor to executives on the matter of their own career success and the career development and management of their employees. Her personal mission is to create breakthrough strategies for executives seeking to grow and transform their work lives.
Every year thousands of people create strategies and take action to accelerate their careers fueled by Karyl’s individual and team coaching, workshops, speeches, articles, and books. She has spent years working with business leaders to break through barriers that prevent them from succeeding to the highest corporate and organizational levels.
A pioneer in program development for the human side of organizational change and downsizing she is a nationally known expert in Career Management, Career Transition and Acceleration. This has placed her in hundreds of venues, stages, boardrooms, convention halls, interview rooms, conference centers, training rooms, sound stages, radio stations, television studios, corporate videos, training programs. Her extensive list of media credits includes video, television, newspapers, magazines, journals, and podcasts. Karyl authored In Search of a Job: Lessons from 10,000 Executives, It Isn’t Easy: A Manager’s Guide to Employee Separations, Personal Branding: Lessons from an Expert and six other career success books. The Wall Street Journal called Karyl’s advice the best you ever heard.
The Innis Company utilizes its expertise to advise, coach, train, create and deliver programs for elite companies and organizations around the world. The firm is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and is a certified woman owned business (WBE and HUB). After graduating with a BA and Master’s Degree from Kansas State University, Karyl began her career as a Workforce Data Analyst, an Executive Recruiter, then Corporate Manager, Executive and Leader before starting the company that bears her name. Karyl is a recognized business leader. An elected delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business, on the Boards of The North Texas Commission and Dallas Chamber of Commerce, she has been active nationally and locally. Karyl is a member of the International Women’s Forum, a past President of the IWF’s Leadership Foundation, a board member and officer and currently on the board of IWF Dallas. In Dallas, she is the former President of the National Association of Women Business Owners, a creator of Capital Concepts, a microloan program. Karyl is a founding member of the Executive Women’s Roundtable and Executive Women’s Partnership; she has served on three private company Board of Directors. Karyl Innis knows why successful people succeed and, if they don’t, how to help them.
Trisha Cunningham
Trisha Cunningham is President and CEO of the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB), a $200 million nonprofit focused on eradicating hunger in a diverse 13-county service area. Together with their partners, the NTFB team of more than 200 employees and 35,000 volunteers provided access to 144 million meals in their last fiscal year.
Prior to North Texas Food Bank, Cunningham was a 30-year global marketing, communications, branding, and public affairs executive at Texas Instruments where she most recently served as Chief Citizenship Officer. She currently serves on the boards of Feeding Texas (chair) and the International Women’s Forum (IWF) Dallas Chapter. She is a member of several local organizations and national Feeding America committees as well as faculty in a nonprofit governance program at UT Dallas.
Cunningham has received numerous awards including DCEO 500 Most Influential Business Leaders, Women in Business and Most Inspiring Leader awards, Texas Women’s Foundation Maura Women Helping Women Award, Dallas Business Journal Women in Business honoree, United Nations Global Leadership Award, Collin County Business Alliance Leadership Award, D Magazine, 78 Women Who Make Dallas Great, Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year finalist, Leadership Dallas Distinguished Alumni Award and Junior League of Collin County Nonprofit Executive of the Year. She also received Murray State University’s highest alumni award.
Renda Mathew
Renda Mathew serves as the Dallas Market President at Truist. As a Banker, she has worked with privately-held middle market sized companies for many years. Her twenty plus years in banking allows her to bring solution based financing and planning. Her background aligns with the Bank’s key components of partnering with the community and empowering healthy economic growth while enhancing the quality of life for her hometown of Dallas. Renda attended the University of Texas at Arlington and the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University.
Renda serves on the board of the Texas Women’s Foundation, Parkland Health Foundation, , Nexus Recovery Center, City Year, United to Learn, and Turtle Creek Conservancy. She is co-Chair of the Women’s Inclusion Network for Truist and is a member of the Local Advisory Council for the Truist Foundation. She is the incoming chair of the Leadership Dallas Alumni Association and is a member of the Dallas Assembly, the Dallas Summit and the International Women’s Forum. Her commitment to causes that support women and children are evidenced by her work in the community.
She calls Dallas home with her husband, Russell Hayward, and enjoys time with their four adult daughters.
Kellie Fischer
Kellie Fischer was appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Texas Rangers in March of 2005. She oversees all financial matters and purchasing for the Texas Rangers and serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. Kellie joined the Rangers in 1999 and has served in many roles for the Rangers former parent company, Southwest Sports Group, and the Dallas Stars.
Fischer has been a key player in a number of the Rangers’ growth initiatives. In addition to aiding the development of an Urban Youth Academy in West Dallas, Fischer was instrumental in the development and construction of the Rangers new Dominican Republic baseball academy, which opened in November 2019. She served a principal role in facilitating the joint venture between the Rangers, The Cordish Companies, and City of Arlington on the $250 million public-private partnership which led to the successful opening of Texas Live! in August 2018 and the $150 million joint venture between the Rangers, Loews Hotels & Co, and The Cordish Companies on Live! by Loews – Arlington, TX, which opened in August 2019. Kellie also has been among the organization’s leaders who brought life to the development and construction of the team’s new Globe Life Field that opened in 2020.
Prior to joining the Rangers, Kellie spent four years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the audit division of the Dallas office. She earned her B.A. in accounting from Baylor University in 1995 and is a Texas CPA. Kellie is a member of The Dallas Assembly, International Women’s Forum, an alumna of Leadership Dallas and the WISE Executive Leadership Institute, a prestigious program offered in partnership with Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth.
Kellie’s commitment to the community extends beyond the doors of the Texas Rangers. She serves on the Finance Committee for the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce and is currently serving as the Chair the Finance Committee for the Baseball Assistance Team. She also serves on the Baylor Alumni Board of Advocates for Baylor University.
She was named the 2010 Chief Financial Officer of the Year for private mid-size companies by the Dallas Business Journal, the 2012 Chief Financial Officer Game Changer of the Year by the Fort Worth Business Press, the recipient of the 2013 Herbert H. Reynolds Outstanding Young Alumni Award of the Baylor University Alumni Association and the recipient of the 2020 Baylor University Alumni of the Year Award and one of the Dallas 500 Business Leaders by D Magazine in 2015 and 2021.
Kellie and her husband, Scott, reside in Dallas.
Helen Giddings
Helen Giddings is President of Multiplex Inc., a specialty concessions company, which she founded in 1989. Previously, Giddings served as Vice President of Leadership Development at the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce and as an executive responsible for Human Resources for 11 states with Sears.
Ms. Giddings served in the Texas House of Representatives for 26 years. During her last term she served as the Vice Chair of the State Affairs Committee and a member of the House Appropriations, and the Calendars Committees. For three terms, she chaired the Business and Industry Committee. The Speaker of the House appointed her to the Texas Legislative Council Governing Board, the Supreme Court of Texas Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families, and the Joint Interim Committee to Study Alzheimer’s Disease. Ms. Giddings also served as the past Chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.
Bets Lillo
Bets Lillo serves as a Board Director and Advisor to companies in the technology and telecommunications industries, active on Compensation, Technology Oversight, Nominating and Governance Committees. With Fortune 100 domestic and overseas leadership roles in Technology, M&A, Operations and Finance, Bets brings to the boardroom a unique ability to assess cross-functional risk and opportunity in dynamic international environments.
Bets holds an NACD certifications in board governance, cyber and climate and maintains active professional governance involvement through NACD, 50/50 Women on Boards, How Women Lead, the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance and the Private Directors Association. She is a technology patent holder who stays on the leading edge of innovation and global oversight as an Executive in Residence and Adjunct Professor in Information Systems and Supply Chain for the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University.
Her civic leadership highlights the international expertise of her domestic and international postings and includes board service for the World Affairs Council of Dallas Ft. Worth and the International Women’s Forum. She supports early-stage companies as a mentor with Capital Factory, Tech Ft Worth and Ignite.
Carine Feyten
Carine Feyten is Chancellor of the Texas Woman’s University System and president of Texas Woman’s University. In her ten years at the helm, Texas Woman's has landed three of the largest gifts in university history; tripled the university endowment; added more than $460 million in assets to campus infrastructure; grown enrollment by 6% while closing the one-and-two-year persistence gaps between racial and ethnic groups and maintaining its ranking by US News as having one of the most diverse student bodies in the country; achieved the American Council on Education and Fidelity Investments' 2023 Award for Institutional Transformation; earned the 2023 Seal of Excelencia for intentionally serving Latinx students; launched the public phase of Dream Big—a $125M comprehensive fundraising campaign, one million dollars for every year since the university was founded; grown research expenditures by 130% in the last five years alone; and founded the Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership, with centers for women entrepreneurs, women in politics and public policy, and student leadership. She has invested personal funds into building an ethos of health and wellbeing. By aligning co-curricular programming with academic preparation for a student body that is 90% women and more than half are the first in their family to attend college, the positive impacts of her Health and Wellbeing Initiative can have a ripple effect as women still make many decisions about their children’s nutrition, exercise habits, mental health, financial planning, and instilling a sense of purpose. She started #campuswithaheart to reflect a culture of care that students describe when sharing about their experience with TWU faculty and staff.
Chancellor Feyten holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary education focused on second language acquisition and instructional technology from the University of South Florida. She is a native of Belgium and speaks five living languages.
Gertrude van Horn
Inducted in 2023 to the Tech Titans Hall of Fame. Winner of Inspire CIO’s 2021 Dallas / North Texas Global ORBIE CIO of the Year. Winner of SEI’s 2020 Women in IT - Luminary Award. These are just a few of the awards and a highlight of the recognition that Trude Van Horn has received in her decades-long career.
A Global CIO and veteran Technology Executive with decades of IT experience. An IT career spanning a diverse group of industries including Manufacturing, Chemicals, Retail and Financial Services. A career of impact and action, with tremendous contributions to global IT Transformation activities, enabling business agility and growth, tens of millions of dollars of impactful technology cost savings and cost avoidance contributions. Known for changing the technology landscape, elevating corporate culture, developing high performance teams, empowering women in the workplace and actively developing the next generation of IT leaders.
Trude is currently a course designer and instructor for Southern Methodist University’s certificate program in Technology Leadership Excellence. She is engaged in many technology forums and advisory boards such as DallasCIO , Inspire CIO, Evanta, SIM, the DFW Alliance of Technology and Women (DFW ATW), and Tech Ball. She is an investor in Prime Women Media, a member of the Dallas Innovation Advisory Council of Vation Ventures. She is a Board Member of Tech Genies, a software development and staffing partner with resources across the globe, and a proud member of IWF, an invitation-only network of the most accomplished women in the world.
Trude challenges and empowers leaders, feels an obligation to invest in mentoring and developing the next generation of technology executives to ensure a diverse pipeline of IT talent, and is passionate about encouraging women to leadership positions in technology.
Born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Trude is a graduate of Temple University, has traveled extensively throughout her career, and currently resides in Irving, Texas, with her husband. She loves golf, bridge, literature, pets, travel and time with family and friends.
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