Power lunch

Hoda Kotb delights and surprises Dallas at 2025 Chick Lit Luncheon

Former Today show host Koda Kotb may have left her TV audience behind months ago, but she can still command a crowd. Just ask the 1,100 attendees of the 2025 Chick Lit Luncheon benefiting Community Partners of Dallas.

Presented by Dr. Robert and Lara Tafel on Friday, March 28 at the Hilton Anatole, the beloved spring luncheon featured a conversation with NBC5’s Laura Harris and Kotb, an award-winning anchor and journalist, New York Times best-selling author, podcast host and adoptive mother.

Following a champagne reception, Waldorf salad lunch, and award presentations, Kotb and Harris sat down in the Chick Lit "living room" on stage for a thoughtful, fun-filled chat. On the heels of Kotb's well-publicized decision to step away from co-hosting Today in January, they covered topics from Kotb’s new post-retirement "minivan life" and how she now has time to take her kids to school, to how she knew it was time to retire.

Kotb also delighted the audience with thoughts on her journey to adopting her two daughters, Haley Joy and Hope Catherine. And, given the luncheon's focus on authors, books and storytelling, they discussed lessons she has learned from some of the stories she has told as a journalist, like the Peabody Award-winning “The Education of Ms. Groves,” featured on NBC’s Dateline.

Chick Lit Luncheon 2025 Hoda Kotb FaceTimes former co-host Jenna Bush Hager during a chat with NBC5's Laura Harris. Photo by Tamytha Cameron, Celeste Cass, Thomas Garza, Nate Rehlander

In a charming high point of the chat, Kotb FaceTime'd her former co-host (and Dallas native) Jenna Bush Hager from the stage and showed the screen for the room to see and hear. Kotb later posted about it on Instagram, and Hager commented, "I love you so much!" (She also tried to FaceTime country singer-songwriter Walker Hayes, with whom she co-wrote the song "Wednesdays.")

In the final moments, Harris shot Kotb a lightning round of questions:

What are you currently reading? “Maria Shriver’s book ‘I am Maria’ – it’s so good y’all!”
Favorite celebrity you’ve had on your podcast Making Space – “Probably Viola Davis.”
Where is your happy place? “Lately in my bed with my kids.”
What’s your favorite trash TV? “It’s not trash – but Kate Hudson’s new series Running Point- we need more stuff like that.”
Who would you pick as Jenna’s new co-host? “Oh… you’re going to get me in trouble, but Scarlett Johansen!”
If you were to get stuck in an elevator with someone, who would you want? “You know who it would be? Kelly Clarkson! She would sing to me!”
What’s the best compliment you have ever received? “I met your mom and I love her.”
What’s a belief that shaped who you are today? “You have to be, like I am, spirit-led.”

As part of the event's awards presentation, a video highlighted the transformational support this year’s Paige McDaniel Partners for Children Award recipient, Toyota Motor North America, gave to CPD and the Dallas nonprofit community. President and CEO Joanna Clarke presented the award to Toyota representatives Denita Neville and JW Washington, who accepted on their company’s behalf.

Chick Lit Luncheon 2025 Toyota Motor North America's Denita Neville and JW Washington accept the Paige McDaniel Partner for Children Award from CPD president and CEO Joanna Clarke (center). Photo by Tamytha Cameron, Celeste Cass, Thomas Garza, Nate Rehlander

From stage, Chick Lit co-chairs Alison Malone and Kelley Schadt, as well as CPD vice president of development and communications Samantha Eppler, underscored the mission of Community Partners of Dallas to serve thousands of abused and neglected children annually across greater Dallas.

Among the 1,100 patrons and supporters of the event were: Chick Lit Luncheon honorary chair Kameron Westcott, Sarah Novakov, Madelaine Lam, Elisabeth Landry, Sharon Lee, Beth Thoele, Kim Quinn, Mary Martha Pickens, Catherine Jaynes, Anne Besser, Christie Carter, Carolyn Murray, Carrie Hill, Courtney Johnson, Deri Hartman, Caycie Briner, Kristie Raymond, Alexandra Lovitt, Karen Foster, Ashley Coursey, Cathy Sewell, Katie Schutz, Maggie Foreman, Emily Harris, Angela Cianciolo, Erin Phillips, Kyle Yohe, Brittany Miller, Lindsey Dyer, Lauren Thompson, Stephanie Hannagan, Allyson Blow, Lisa Ogle, Cathy James, Terra Najork Peterson, Dawn Greiner, Breah Brown, Machelle Davenport, Margo Coughlin, Ginger Martin, Heather Baker, Madeline Giamello, Kate Phillips, Jourdan McClish, Megan Pharis, Brooke Bailey, Elizabeth Dacus, Michael White, Kimberly Casey, Lynn McBee, Jeff Netzer, Morgan Kennedy, Tiffany Lawson, Amy Martinez, Katie Robbins, Tanya Rice, and Mary McGreevy.

Photo by Tamytha Cameron, Celeste Cass, Thomas Garza, Nate Rehlander

Deri Hartman, Caycie Briner, Kristie Raymond and Alexandra Lovitt.

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A Glittering Celebration

Christine Baranski brings Hollywood sparkle to Dallas luncheon

Photo by Kim Leeson

Karen Hughes White, Caren Lock, Christine Baranski, Shonn Brown.

The Omni Dallas Hotel shimmered in ruby tones on November 14 as more than 950 supporters gathered to celebrate a milestone four decades in the making: the Texas Women’s Foundation’s Ruby Anniversary Luncheon.

The afternoon blended Hollywood sparkle — courtesy of award-winning actress Christine Baranski — with heartfelt tributes to the visionary women who sparked a movement in Texas 40 years ago.

The annual luncheon, one of the region’s most significant events advancing women and girls, raised an impressive $840,000. More than $112,000 of that came in during the program itself, underscoring the energy in the room and the urgency of the mission.

TXWF used the occasion to announce a landmark figure: a cumulative $115 million in impact since its founding in 1985. That number includes nearly $90 million in grants to organizations serving women and girls, as well as more than $25 million invested in research, advocacy, and leadership initiatives designed to shape long-term change.

Board chair Cris Zertuche Wong opened the program by welcoming seven of the Foundation’s 11 living founders, who also served as the event's honorary co-chairs: Susan Shamburger Bagwell, the Honorable Harryette Ehrhardt, Catalina E. Garcia, Frances Griffin-Brown, Helen LaKelly Hunt, the Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison, Madeline Mandell, Patricia Meadows, Gwendolyn Oliver, CoYoTe PhoeNix, and Rebecca Russell Sykes.

Their presence cast a powerful through line from 1985 to 2025, reminding guests how a collective of 19 bold women stepped across differences in background, beliefs, and political leanings to create an organization with the singular purpose of supporting Texas women and their families.

Wong also recognized former Foundation leaders and Ruby Anniversary co-chairs from across the decades: Gail Griswold and Brenda Jackson representing the 1980s; Laura Estrada, the 1990s; Helen Frank, the 2000s; and Shonn Brown, the 2020s.

TXWF president and CEO Karen Hughes White spoke to the road ahead, noting that while the founders’ vision remains timeless, the challenges facing Texas women have grown more complex. “It will take all of us to create meaningful, lasting, systemic change that levels the playing field for women and, in turn, creates a strong and vibrant Texas for all,” she said.

Throughout the luncheon, guests were treated to archival video clips of the founders recalling how they built TXWF from scratch: the meetings held around kitchen tables, the spirited debates, the shared belief that change was not only possible but necessary.

Brown then honored each of the 11 living founders, as well as those who have passed, noting that their collective voice will be further amplified in a forthcoming 40-story collection documenting TXWF's history.

The afternoon’s featured guest, introduced by Target executive and event sponsor Sabrina Thomas, was the incomparable Christine Baranski, the Emmy and Tony-winning actress of The Good Wife, Cybil, and The Gilded Age.

In an onstage conversation moderated by former board chair Caren Lock, Baranski charmed the audience with stories from her upbringing in Buffalo, New York, where she grew up in a working-class Polish American family. She spoke of perseverance, discipline, and dreaming big, qualities that carried her to Juilliard and ultimately into a celebrated four-decade career spanning television, film, and theater.

As the luncheon drew to a close, the mood was equal parts celebratory and forward-looking. Forty years in, the Texas Women’s Foundation continues to push for equity with the same passion that fueled its founding.

Photo by Kim Leeson

Karen Hughes White, Caren Lock, Christine Baranski, Shonn Brown.

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A Glittering Celebration

Christine Baranski brings Hollywood sparkle to Dallas luncheon