Don't mess with Texas women

Jenna Bush Hager drops into Dallas to celebrate 7 trailblazing Texas women

What: Texas Women’s Foundation 2023 Leadership Forum & Awards Celebration

Photo by Kim Leeson

Shonn Brown, Veree Brown

Where: Omni Dallas Hotel

The 411: Dallas native, former first daughter, and NBC Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager came home to Texas to help honor some of the state's most accomplished women on April 27. More than 650 attendees filled the Omni hotel downtown for the Texas Women's Foundation's annual forum and awards party.

Unlike many other nonprofit events, this was more than just a luncheon or a fancy soiree. The day started with a half-day empowerment program for 200 middle and high school girls dubbed #BESTSELF.

Then, Leadership Forums saw the 2023 Maura Women Helping Women and Young Leader award recipients discuss their journey.

Finally, the Awards Celebration and Dinner featured a presentation in which Hager interviewed the honorees in two different panel discussions on stage.

Also a fundraiser, the day's events and celebrations raised $572,000 to further the foundation's mission to advance economic security and leadership for Texas women and girls through groundbreaking research, advocacy, grants and programs.

Who: Brenda Jackson, selection co-chair, and Wendy Bridges of sponsor Comerica Bank presented awards to the following (with descriptions provided by the foundation):

Froswá Booker-Drew, Ph.D. (Dallas), the CEO of Soulstice Consultancy, LLC providing DEI, leadership training, community engagement strategies and philanthropic/partnership guidance for institutions.

Mary Pat Higgins (Dallas), President and CEO of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, where she leads its mission to teach the history of the Holocaust and advance human rights to combat prejudice, hatred, and indifference.

Jill Louis (Dallas), Managing Partner of Perkins Coie’s Dallas office, a member of the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice, and co-chair of the Infrastructure Development practice. She is also the host of "RelevantNow," an environmental, social and corporate governance-focused podcast.

Madeline Burillo-Hopkins, Ed.D. (Houston), Vice Chancellor Workforce Instruction for the Houston Community College System and College President, where she has been an advocate for workforce education, diversity, and equity.

Aimee Cunningham (Austin), President and CEO of The Boone Family Foundation and a highly experienced principal in the progressive movement.

The Young Leader Award (recognizing breakthrough leadership y a trailblazer under the age of 40) went to:

Ann Sheu (Dallas), the founder of Mpowered Families, a training and coaching company with a unique approach to empowering individuals with tools to have a family life filled with purpose, alignment and connection.

Professor “Bee” Nance (Katy), the COO of Generation Teach, a multi-million-dollar educational non-profit whose vision is to end racial injustice and inequity in education.

Tops in Texas

Dallas makes top 10 list of cities with most millionaires in America

Photo courtesy of Dallas Cowboys

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Dallas is rolling in millionaires and a new list offers the proof: A study of the Top 10 Wealthiest Cities in USA by residency and citizenship consultant Henley & Partners puts Dallas at No. 6 — home to 72,400 millionaires as of December 2024.

As if that's not enough, Dallas also has 135 centi-millionaires — meaning they're worth $100 million or more — and 16 billionaires.

According to the study, the number of millionaires in Dallas grew 85 percent from 2014 to 2024.

The study pointed out that Dallas “has seen very strong wealth growth over the past two decades, driven in part by the relocation of several major corporate headquarters to the city. Prominent companies based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area include AT&T, CBRE, Caterpillar, American Airlines, Charles Schwab, and Texas Instruments.”

Houston was the richest city in Texas, coming in at no. 5 and beating Dallas by one place. Austin just squeezed in at 10th place but is rushing to catch up: It had the greatest increase in number of richy-rich in the past decade.

Here’s the rundown for Houston and Austin:

Houston — 81,800 millionaires, 210 centi-millionaires, and 16 billionaires. Millionaire growth rate from 2014 to 2024: 75 percent.
Austin — 32,000 millionaires, 90 centi-millionaires, and 10 billionaires. Millionaire growth rate from 2014 to 2024: 90 percent.

In its comments about Houston, the study pointed out that “America’s energy capital, Houston, is a global leader in engineering and aeronautics. It is also home to 24 Fortune 500 companies — the third-highest number among U.S. cities, after New York and Chicago."

Regarding Austin, the study said: “With its booming tech sector, Austin has been dubbed ‘Silicon Hills.’ Several major tech companies have moved their headquarters to the city over the past decade, most notably Tesla. Texas’s low state taxes add to Austin’s appeal. While wealth growth in the city has slowed over the past couple of years, it remains very impressive when viewed over the past decade as a whole.”

New York City topped the overall list, boasting 384,500 millionaires, 818 centi-millionaires and 66 billionaires. But Texas is the only state with three millionaire hubs in the top 10.

On a separate Henley & Partners list, Houston took the No. 5 spot for the most centi-millionaires in the U.S. Dallas ranked seventh and Austin ranked 12th.

study reports