2002 Biographies
Betty Adam, PhD
Betty Adam is the Canon Theologian at Christ Church Cathedral, the Episcopal Cathedral located in downtown Houston. She is the founder of Brigid’s Place, a woman’s ministry informed by feminist though, and she serves as instructor and executive director of a theological center at the Cathedral. Her major interests include feminist theology, process theology, and contemporary approaches to the major issues facing men and women in today’s society. She received her doctorate in philosophy from Rice University and taught ancient and modern philosophy at The University of St. Thomas in Houston. She was a Merrill Fellow at Harvard Divinity School in 1995. She is married to W. Kendall Adam, a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, and is the mother of two sons, Mark and Michael.
Selina Ahmed, PhD
Selina Ahmed was born in Bangladesh. In 1973 Texas Women’s University in Denton conferred upon her a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Human Nutrition. Since 1975, she has taught nutrition as an Associate Professor at Texas Southern University in the Department of Human Services and Consumer Sciences. She has also served as an administrative and clinical dietitian for Methodist Hospital and as a Research Fellow of Space Nutrition at NASA. Selina’s other community and professional activities include years of service as the president of the Bangladesh Association of Houston. She worked with Congressman Mickey Leland to develop a hunger relief program for Bangladesh and was interim director of the Mickey Leland Center on World Hunger. She lectures widely at home and abroad and has helped bring to Houston such illustrious speakers as the Dalai Lama and Dr. Arun Gandhi. She is also a board member of KidCare, which provides meals to underprivileged children. Selina has received several nominations and awards in recognition of her humanitarian service, including the Lifetime Service for an Outstanding Local Person award from the Houston Peace Network, among many other responsibilities and successes.
Dorothy “Decie” Autin
Decie Autin began her career at Exxon in New Orleans. She was the facilities engineer and was one of the first women in the oil field. After passing several interesting challenges from the offshore crews, she became an accepted team member. Decie rose to become an operations superintendent in charge of the operations of four offshore deepwater fields. She also actively participated in community leadership programs. In 1995 she was transferred to Houston, Texas, to become a planner in Exxon’s Natural Gas Marketing Company. In 1998 she became the technical manager for the Hoover/Diana development, the deepest water development worldwide. She is on the Project Management team and now works with BP on the Crazy Horse deepwater development, which is estimated to be 3 to 5 times larger than Hoover/Diana.
Shannon Buggs
Shannon Buggs is the Houston Chronicles financial columnist and reporter. She covers the banking, insurance and mutual funds industries. A Houston Native, she joined the staff of her hometown paper in April 1999. Six months later, she began writing “Your Money,” a personal finance column that appears every Monday on the cover of the Chronicle's Business section.
Prior to Joining the Chronicle, Shannon worked in Raleigh, NC for the daily News & Observer’s metropolitan, state and business news desks. She has also written for the Houston Defender, the Houston Post and the Dallas Morning News. She earned a BA in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University and an MA in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Shannon is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists, a charter member of the Downtown Area Women’s Network in Houston, and on the board of directors for Girls Inc. of Greater Houston.
Joye Carter, MD
Dr. Joye Carter is the current Chief Medical Examiner for Harris County, Texas. She is the first female to head a medical examiner’s office in the state of Texas. Prior to assuming this position, Joye was the first female appointed Chief Medical Examiner in Washington, DC. She is also the first African American woman to become a Chief Medical Examiner.
Joye is a board-certified forensic pathologist and anatomical and clinical pathologist. She received her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in 1983. Joye served as a major in the US Air Force and as a deputy chief medical examiner for the Armed Forced Medical Examiner department. While in the military she traveled around the world investigating the deaths of active-duty military personnel and US citizens. In addition to serving as a medical examiner, Joye has held numerous faculty appointments and written articles for peer reviewed journals. She also writes a monthly column for the Houston Chronicle.
Joye actively participated in many community organizations such as the Gulf Coast Sickle Cell Association and the Bread of Life, a homeless project at St. John’s AME Church. For more on Joye’s fascinating life, read her autobiography My Strength Comes from Within.
Kathleen V. Douglass
Kathy Douglass has been with Greensheet, a family-owned business, 29 of its 32 years. She has been president for the last 7 years, during which time the publication’s distribution has grown from 14 million to 36 million.
Kathy is a mother of two, a son and a daughter, and grandmother of three granddaughters. In addition, she is a happy newlywed. “Never say never,” she says.
Neelofer Durrani, MD
Dr. Neelofer Durrani, a native of Pakistan, received her MD degree in 1982 from the Queen Anne Medical College. She came to the US in 1986, where she did her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. There she won the Resident of the Year award for 1993-94. Currently, she is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist in private practice in Houston. In 2001 she was nominated for the Physician of the Year award at Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital.
Leslie Elkins
Leslie Elkins has been an architect (Leslie Elkins Architecture) providing architecture, landscape, planning and interior services since 1995. She was awarded the Houston AIA Award for Design in 2001 for her collaboration with installation artist James Turrell on the Live Oak Friends Meetinghouse. In 1996, she was given the Houston AIA award and the Texas Society of Architects Award for Design for the Children’s Chapel at Magnificent House.
Prior to establishing her own practice, Leslie worked with Charles Tapley Associates. She has had numerous exhibitions and installations, including SNAPSHOT 2001 (RDA); Virtual Process, a shade structure for Lyons Village Apartments sponsored by the Cultural Arts Council of Houston; Houston Works (RDA); and many others. She has published articles in such publications as The New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, and Art in America.
Carolyn Farb
Carolyn Farb approaches fundraising with originality, dedication and focus. For the past two decades, her hard work and determination have benefited well over 100 charities. She is passionate about her causes, visionary in her goal, meticulous in her planning, motivational in her solicitation and reverent of her donors and volunteers. Her ability to combine a challenging business venture with glamour and style is a rare talent. She is the author of How to Raise Millions, Helping Others, Having a Ball - a practical how-to guide for fundraisers, volunteers and professionals involved in the non-profit sector. Carolyn has received numerous honors for her efforts, including the Illustrious Modern Award from the Wedgwood Society, the Diana Award, the 1996 “I Have a Dream” Dream Maker Award, the Volunteers of America’s Regional and National Service Awards, and was named the YWCA’s Woman of the Year. In 1997 she was inducted into the Texas Philanthropy Hall of Fame, and in 1998 she was awarded the UNICEF Children’s Medallion of Honor.
Billie Gollnick
Billie has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1966. She studied in Switzerland, India, England, the US, and Canada. She spent six years with Ernest Wood studying Sanskrit and classic Vedanta and assisted in translations of ancient texts for publication. Classes range from aerobic yoga to flowing with breath, stretching to classic asanas. Her classes emphasize Adwaita Vedanta and are strongly based in Patanjali’s eight steps.
Jennifer Holmes
Jennifer Holmes has been the Executive Director of Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse (AVDA) since April of 2001. Although she is new to AVDA, she is no stranger to issues pertaining to women. She is former executive director for Wellsprings, a long-term transitional housing program for homeless and abused women. Jennifer has also worked with the Houston Community College's Women in Transition Program, and she actively serves as the co-chair on the City of Houston’s Multi-Cultural Committee for Women and their families, Domestic Violence Council, Healthcare for the Homeless, and participates in various community task forces. She has led numerous community dialogue groups and classes that focus on diversity and human relationships.
Jennifer earned a BS in Human Science and an MS in Psychology from Our Lady of the Lake University. She has presented at various seminars and facilitates dialogue groups on topics related to the empowerment of women.
Mae C. Jemison, PhD
Mae Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavor, September 12, 1992, and was the first woman of color to go into space. Mae served as a NASA astronaut for six years. As the science mission specialist on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a US/Japan joint mission, she conducted experiments in life sciences, material sciences, and was a co-investigator of the Bone Cell Research experiment.
Now she is the founder and president of a small advanced technology company and a college professor. The space flight was just one of an ongoing series of accomplishments for this dynamic woman. Her current work focuses on the globally beneficial integration of science and technology into our everyday lives. To pursue these ideas, she formed The Jemison Group, Inc. Company projects have included consulting on the design of solar thermal electricity generation systems for developing countries and remote areas and the use of satellite-based telecommunications to facilitate health care delivery in West Africa.
Melanie Lawson
Melanie Lawson, news anchor at Channel 13, is a proud Houstonian, having been born and raised here. She received her undergraduate degree in politics from Princeton University and a joint degree in law and journalism from Columbia University. She then worked at a Wall Street law firm for nearly three years before coming home to Houston.
Melanie has had a varied and exhilarating career at Channel 13, covering every kind of story imaginable. She traveled to South Africa when President Bill Clinton was the first sitting US President to visit the continent, and Melanie was the only local reporter in the nation to do so. She also traveled extensively around the world with the late congressman Mickey Leland. Closer to home, she’s covered every major election from City Hall to the White House and has interviewed four presidents as well as cultural and political figures such as Maya Angelou, Stephen Spielberg, Spike Lee, Henry Kissinger, and the Dalai Lama. But Melanie’s favorite stories are those that involve Houston's rich multi-ethnic community and the people who are quietly working to make a difference, among whom Melanie herself can be counted. Her involvement in the community has ranged from serving on the board of the Alley Theatre to working with the Foundation for Interfaith Research and Ministry, as well as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Last, but certainly not least, she is a proud member of her father's congregation, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.
Gin-Ru Lee
Gin-Ru Lee graduated from National Taiwan University with a BA in Philosophy in 1972. In 1997, she earned an MA in Social Work from the University of Houston. She has worked with The Associated Catholic Charities and the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast. Gin-Ru's extensive volunteer activities include serving as chair of the board of the Taiwanese Heritage Society of Houston, founding board member of Asians Against Domestic Abuse, youth program advisory committee member of the Red Cross Houston Chapter, chair of the scholarship committee of the Alliance for Multicultural Community Service, board member of the Houston Taiwanese School of Language and Culture, chairperson of the outreach committee and president of the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association, vice president of the Taiwanese American Association, and founding president of the Houston Taiwanese Women’s Association, among many other responsibilities.
Mary Lee
Mary Lee, Attorney at Law, loves people and loves life. She escaped from China to Taiwan with her parents when she was two weeks old, and she was educated in Taipei, Taiwan, through college. Mary then studied international relations and business and immigrated to the US. For 20 years she worked her way from teller in a rural town in Michigan to assistant vice president of ABN AMRO Bank in charge of budget, audit, and financial controls. In midlife, she studied law in the evenings and came to Houston as staff attorney in Harris County Probate Court #3, also volunteering in Harris County Court #1. Life couldn’t be happier, she says. Mary has had many obstacles in her life but has overcome them one at a time. Her happiest moment is this and every moment; and the best, she says, is yet to come. The things she values most are time, friends, and water. Her routine life includes working out, kickboxing, playing tennis, working, practicing law, and meeting people. She has been married to the same spouse for 29 years and has one daughter.
Marie LeNotre
Marie LeNotre is the director of the Culinary Institute Alain & Marie LeNotre. She holds a BA in psychology from the University of Houston; a BA in Drama from the National Drama School in Athens, Greece, her city of origin; an MA in Public Health Education from the University of Texas; and an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. She is currently a student at the University of St. Thomas School of Theology.
Marie has written short stories, poems, and a novel. In March 2001, she created the Culinary Endowment and Scholarship, a Texas non-profit corporation that raises scholarship funds for underprivileged students of merit who aspire to a culinary career. Last year’s first Fundraising Gala helped establish a $15,000 endowment and contribute $13,000 in scholarships. In addition, Marie is vice president of the Houston Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, a society of professional women of achievement in the food industry.
Aimee McCrory
Aimee McCrory has the unique ability to translate financial jargon into clear, concrete information that has practical value in our everyday lives. She has a proven track record of educating groups and empowering individuals by providing accessible financial guidance that can transform the money-phobic rookie into a savvy, poised decision maker – ready to make informed decisions about his or her future.
In 1988, Aimee responded to the need for personalized investment portfolio management by creating McCrory Associates Investment Management. Through her efforts as President and Investment Analyst, Aimee has grown the firm to serve over 100 investors with assets approaching 75 million dollars. She is a native Houstonian who began her career in 1976 as the first female insurance broker for Connecticut General Life Insurance where her focus was income and estate planning for business owners and high net-worth individuals.
Aimee is a sought-after financial educator and expert who has been quoted in national financial publications and has hosted “The Bottom Line” for the morning show on CBS’s Houston affiliate KHOU, Channel 11. Aimee is currently the money expert for NBC’s Houston affiliate KPRC, Channel 2 financial segment “Payday Payoff.”
Farnoosh Moshiri, PhD
Farnoosh Moshiri was born to a literary family in Tehran, Iran. After receiving her BA in dramatic literature from the College of Dramatic Arts she studied drama at the University of Iowa with a full scholarship. Her plays, short stories, and poems were published in Iranian literary magazines before the 1979 revolution and in anthologies published in Europe in the 1980s.
In 1983 Farnoosh fled her country after a massive arrest of secular intellectuals, feminists, and political activists. She came to Houston in 1987, and in 1991 she entered the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston with a Barthelme Memorial Fellowship. Her first novel, At the Wall of the Almighty was published by Interlink Publishing Group in January 2000. The Bathhouse, her second novel, was published by the Black Heron Press in August 2001.
Farnoosh is the winner of the 1996 Prose Award at the University of Houston, Clear Lake; a 1997 Barthelme Award for non-fiction; a 1999 Barbara Deming Award for Peace and Social Justice; and a Black Heron Award for Social Fiction. She has completed a third novel, The Drum-tower, and her collection of short stories is to be released next year. Currently she is working on her fourth novel, In America. Farnoosh is an associate professor of literature and creative writing at Montgomery College.
Niobe Ngozi
Niobe Ngozi is a seasoned writer, performer, and administrator with a demonstrated record of accomplishment in artistic, educational, and political arenas. Both Niobe’s writing and her performance work address issues of diversity, and her work has been performed in a variety of venues in Texas, California, and New York. Her poetry is published in Black Texas Women – 150 Years of Trial and Triumph (University of Texas Press); Kente Farrago: A Journal of Women’s Writing. Niobe has a BA in English and African American Studies from the State University of New York, Binghampton.
Currently, Niobe serves as director of art education for the Children’s Museum of Houston, where she conceptualizes, curates, and designs cultural exhibits and manages an ongoing performing art series. She believes her greatest accomplishments to date are her three compassionate and artistically talented children.
Sarah Yazdi Noorbaksh, MD
Dr. Sarah Noorbaksh was born in Tehran, Iran, and immigrated to the US at the age of two. She grew up in Houston and attended Bellaire High School and Rice University, where she studied biochemistry. She received her MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Ever since she completed her residency, at UT SW Memorial Hospital, she has been a faculty member at the Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Medicine and is currently an Assistant Professor. She also teaches Geriatrics to the family practice residents at the Seven Acres Geriatric Center and fellows from the Huffington Center.
Sarah has been married for 24 years and has 3 children. She teaches Sunday school classes at Houston’s Iranian Islamic Cultural Foundation, which was founded by her family in cooperation with two other families. Sarah says that Karen Armstrong’s label of “freelance monotheist” probably fits her best, but ideally would like to focus on shared values and not labels.
Lisa Diane Santos, MD
Dr. Lisa Santos, Plastic Surgeon, was born in Lubbock, Texas. She studied at Southern Methodist University and Texas Tech University. She performed her surgery internship and residency at the University of Kentucky and her plastic surgery residency at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. Lisa also had a fellowship in cosmetic surgery at the NYU-Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital. Her honors and awards include the Janet M. Glasgow achievement Citation in 1984 and membership in the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, among many others. In addition to participating in a variety of professional organizations, Lisa is a board member of the Hope Center for Youth and an advisory board member of the Stevens & Pruitt Humane Ranch.
Since 1990 Lisa has had a bimonthly nationally syndicated talk show on plastic and reconstructive surgery. It is broadcast locally on KLOL.
Gail M. Seavey, ASAC
Gail M. Seavey is an Assistant Special Agent in Charge in the Houston Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She is responsible for the investigative and administrative operations of the White Collar Crime and Civil Rights Programs, which encompass a variety of fraud, corruption and civil rights violations. Prior to her assignment in Houston, she organized the Asset Forfeiture Unit in the Criminal Investigative Division at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters Office in Washington DC, where she was involved in training and the use of asset forfeiture in criminal investigations. Her previous assignment as a Supervisory Special Agent in New Orleans over the Financial Institution Fraud and Economic Crimes violations entailed a number of investigations into bank fraud and various fraud schemes as well as insurance, telemarketing and securities fraud investigations. Prior to her assignment in New Orleans, she was a supervisory special agent working asset forfeiture at the Headquarters office in Washington, DC, and worked a variety of federal investigations as a special agent in the Washington, DC; Atlanta, Georgia; and Jacksonville, Florida offices.
Gael Stack
Gael Stack, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Art and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art at the University of Houston, has exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally. Some of the collections that include her work are the Beaux Art Museum, Saintes, France; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Menil Collection, Houston; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois; Dallas Museum of Art; San Antonio Museum of Art; and Museum of Fine Art, Houston. Gael has also served on the board of directors of the Contemporary Arts Museum and the Municipal Arts Commission of Houston and is currently on the board of the Cultural Arts Council of Houston.
Kaye Stripling, PhD
Dr. Kaye Stripling was named Superintendent of Schools of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) to succeed Dr. Rod Paige when he became the US Secretary of Education in January 2001. In appointing her, the Board of Education expressed its confidence in Kaye’s ability to maintain the district-wide progress that Dr. Paige set in motion.
Kaye received her BS at Texas Woman’s University in 1962. She then earned her master’s and doctorate in education at the University of Houston, specializing in Special Education (MEd, 1967) and Curriculum Instruction (EdD, 1985).
Kaye joined HISD in 1964 as a teacher of the educable mentally retarded at Lee Elementary School. Since then she has taught at Looscan and Atherton Elementary Schools and served as the principal at Burbank, Parker, and West University Elementary schools and at Pershing Middle School. Kaye was named District Superintendent of Staff Development and oversaw the Rice School/La Escuela Rice before being appointed District Superintendent of HISD’s Southwest Administrative District in 1995. She has long been recognized as an active advocate for teachers, and, in her first State of the Schools address, publicly declared her commitment to making 2001 the Year of the Teacher at HISD.
Louise Strong, MD
Dr. Louise Strong is a widely published scientist in the field of genetics and cancer etiology. With primary focus on childhood cancers as a model, Louise takes a multidisciplinary approach to her work, pursuing clinical and genetic epidemiologic studies of patients to establish the incidence of genetic predisposition to cancer, not only to understand cancer in general but to determine if the same genes that are involved in heritable cases might also be significant in terms of commonly acquired cancers.
In addition to her academic work, Louise is active in teaching, serving on many graduate student committees and in local and national genetic and cancer communities. Her entire career has been at the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where she now holds the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Chair as Professor of Human Genetics in the Division of Pediatrics and is Chief of the Section of Clinical Cancer Genetics. Louise has served on many policymaking committees with the National Cancer Institute and has served as president of the American Association of Cancer Research.
Ileana Treviño
Ileana Trevino is vice chancellor for university advancement at the University of Houston. Prior to becoming vice chancellor, she served as the University of Houston's executive director of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. Prior to that, she was deputy director for equal employment at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC. Her career additionally includes serving as chief of employment programs at the US Department of Agriculture and personnel management specialist for the US Department of Transportation. She also managed her own consulting firm in the human resources and equal employment opportunity areas. Ileana's education includes earning a BA in Psychology and Romance Languages from Boston College and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Ileana has close ties to the Houston community and has been active as a national representative for Hispanic issues, including serving two terms (1987-88 and 1996-97) on the US Senate Task Force on Hispanic Affairs. She served as chair of the UH Presidential commission on the Status of Women, and sits on the boards of directors of the Greater Houston Industry Liaison Group and Lamont Productions, a local non-profit organization.
Ann Wilkes Tucker
Ann Tucker was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she attended public schools. She received undergraduate degrees from Randolph Macon Woman’s College and Rochester Institute of Technology and a graduate degree from the Visual Studies Workshop, a division of the State University of New York.
Ann is the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she has worked since 1976. She founded the Photography Department at the museum which now has a collection of over 12,000 photographs. In 2001, TIME magazine named Ann America’s Best Curator. She has curated over 40 exhibitions, including retrospectives for Robert Frank, Ray K. Metzker, Brassai, George Krause, Louis Faurer, and Richard Misrach, and is currently working on the History of Japanese Photography. Most of these exhibitions were accompanied by a publication. Ann herself has published many articles and lectured throughout the US and Europe. She has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Getty Center, and received an Alumnae Achievement award from Randolph Macon Women’s College.
Becky Greene Udden
Rebecca Udden has been Artistic Director of Main Street Theatre since its founding in 1975. She has directed numerous productions for Main Street Theater, specializing in women playwrights from all eras of dramatic literature – from Susannah Centlivre, Aphra Behn, Fanny Burney and Jane Austen to Zona Gale, Mary Gallagher and Wendy Wasserstein. Some titles include Northanger Abbey, The Witlings, Arcadia, Full Bloom, The Heidi Chronicles, King Lear, The Lucky Chance, Hamlet, Uncommon Women and Others, The Real Thing, and Pride and Prejudice (which she adapted for the stage). She also designs for the company. As an actress Rebecca has appeared in The Sisters Rosensweig, Hapgood, Joined at the Head, and Hamlet. She has directed for regional educational television as well as for other Houston theaters. Rebecca is a member of class XVII of the Houston Chapter of the American Leadership Forum and is a recipient of the JC Penney Spirit Award for outstanding achievement in the arts. She is a graduate of Rice University, is married and has two teenage daughters.
Evelyn Velasquez
Evelyn Velasquez is the president of Leadership Houston, Inc., a non-profit community leadership development program dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in the Houston area by identifying existing and emerging leaders, developing and enhancing their leadership skills, educating and informing them about major community issues, providing opportunities to exercise leadership, and creating a means to establish and maintain relationships with other leaders.
Evelyn has over 22 years of experience in non-profit management. She is currently a board member of the national Community Leadership Association and the Association of Texas Leadership Programs, a member of the American Society of Association Executives, and the Greater Houston Partnership – Education Division. Evelyn is a founder and past president of the National Hispanic Council on Aging – Houston Chapter.
Evelyn received a BS from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and is currently working on her MBA from LeTourneau University.
Francie Willis
Francie Willis began her career in the early 1970s at the Wendy Ward Charm School and went on to become a renowned entrepreneur in the beauty industry. In 1989 Francie opened Urban Retreat, which was named Spa of the Year in 1993 by Modern Salon and Spa magazines. Francie herself has been recognized by Allure, Better Homes & Gardens, Elle, Redbook, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country and Day Spa magazines. Her other honors include the Cleveland Amory Humanitarian of the Year Award in 1999, among many others.
In addition to founding Urban Retreat and expanding the business to include Urban Retreat West Day Spa and Urban Retreat Skin Center, Francie created Franché Cosmetics, the only mineral-based make-up with freeze-dried vitamins and sun protections factor 20.
Beth Wolff
Beth Wolff has been CEO of Beth Wolff Realtors since she founded it in 1978. She entered the real estate industry as the sole supporter of her children, then four and six years old. With a deep appreciation for the opportunity that Beth feels Houston affords women, she started giving back to the community in the early 80s. For her service to the community, Beth has recently been honored as a TEW Woman on the Move. She also received the John E. Wolf Citizenship Award, was a 1999 & 2001 Woman Business Owner of the Year finalist, and most recently was honored as the Outstanding Woman in Real Estate from the YWCA of Houston. Beth is a past president of the Houston Association of Realtors and immediate past chair of Keep Houston Beautiful. She also co-founded the Women’s Political Forum in 2001. In addition she currently serves on the boards of the Greater Houston YMCA, Seven Acres Geriatric Center and River Oaks Business Women’s Exchange Club.