Katie Kelton

Meet the faces of the California exodus to Texas

Jan Xie, a North Texas resident who started Asian Culture and Education Society (ACAES) USA, is proud of her Chinese heritage.

In December 2018, Kenedi represented the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas onstage at Michelle Obama’s Becoming book chat. This year she began studying Political Science and Communications at the University of Texas, and dreams of becoming an advocate for S.T.E.M education for girls and bilingual literacy. Now, in collaboration with Penguin Random House and Michelle Obama, Girl Scouts is introducing the Becoming Me program to help Girl Scouts become their best selves. The program is inspired by the

A lifelong resident of North Texas, Neil Loving is committed to completing any residential task customers need. His company can rebuild a floor plan, renovate bathrooms and kitchens, paint, and anything else that will make a home more enjoyable.

On Saturday, March 27, Dallas-Fort Worth residents gathered in Plano’s Russell Creek Park to honor the eight victims of the Atlanta spa shootings, and to express solidarity with the Asian American community.

Tucked into an unassuming red brick storefront in Downtown Plano is a sanctuary for our city’s artistic spirit. Rail Station Studios, operated by Gene Dillard and hidden next to the DART rail line on tiny 15th Place, is that sanctuary.

BMOS fills a niche as a nonpartisan tribe of women wanting the best for their families while living in a community where they are often the minority.

Several uncomfortable truths persist in the American investment industry: Social networks are segregated by race and gender. Prestigious education is limited to those with access. Unconscious bias affects investor decisions. And tech, venture capitalism, and entrepreneurship are not duly represented by women and people of color. Two Dallas philanthropists are on a mission to move the needle with a simple concept: equitable entrepreneurship. The Dallas Foundation Pegasus Prize, a $50,000 grant aw

Adda and Texadelphia join Richardson Restaurant Park in 2021.

There is no volunteer more dedicated to her vocation than Almas Muscatwalla. She works tirelessly for the Foundation’s efforts to unite a religiously heterogeneous city. She advocates fiercely for kindness and curiosity. And she adheres to a countercultural idea: that the way to mend our divides is to break bread together. A Shi‘a Muslim, native Indian, American, Thanks-Giving Foundation board member, and Faith Forward Dallas founder, Almas devotes her waking hours to intertwining the two motive

Medical staff at federally qualified health centers are the unsung heroes of healthcare for all, and the team at North Texas Area Community Health Centers (NTACHC) is no exception. Since 2002, NTACHC has provided high quality medical services to low income populations, bridging the gap of health disparities and medical accessibility. In 2019, the centers served 13,000 patients, and numbers are growing. To meet increasing demand, NTACHC has welcomed two new doctors, two new family practitioners,

As the new Executive Director of This Side Up! Family, Catlin Hale fearlessly leads parents from surviving to thriving in the home. Any family in North Texas is able to access their space for families to connect and grow through programs like marriage enrichment, single parent support, parenting education, and family events. Even in times of pandemic, Catlin and her team are supporting families with date night gift cards and a digital quality time newsletter with family activities.

With back-to-school season looming in the minds of our metroplex, the Together for Tomorrow cohort is a beacon of hope during a global pandemic. Spearheaded by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and CoSpero Consulting, nine nonprofits are in pursuit of adaptive education for students of all ages, from pre-kindergarten to adult learners.

Kimberly’s goal through Interfaith Family Services is simple yet complex: remove obstacles for families in poverty. In her career, she spent nearly seven years at a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) initiative providing services to transition residents from welfare to work and nearly eight years delivering Girl Scouts programming to girls from low-income communities. She was tapped to lead Interfaith Family Services in 2011, and together with her talented team, has launched several successful

Amanda Switzer and Elizabeth Ngalwile founded The Kukhoma Project, creating a house in Zambia that would serve as a refuge and place of restoration for girls who had become pregnant because of sexual abuse. Kukhoma provides a safe place for the girls during their pregnancy and after, teach them a work skill, equip them to care for their children, continue their education, support and empower their family members, and prepare them for the best possible future.

After a successful career as a journalist and published author, Amy began volunteering for the North Texas Master Naturalists. Over the past 12 years, Amy has dedicated nearly three hundred hours towards the preservation and creation of North Texas’ natural world–ensuring that the 1% of Texas’s remaining natural prairies remain intact.

Abi Ferrin, Rania Batrice, and Elle Lewis have joined forces to start a brand new nonprofit organization called Love and Freedom, creating a safe place for human trafficking survivors to gain economic and empowerment opportunities. The first employment opportunity offered to the women was through a partnership with Abi Ferrin and New Friends New Life to create 100 scarfs to share as gifts at the 2019 New Friends New Life Luncheon.

Merry Watson, a seasoned guidance counselor from Chicago, has stepped in to lead the brand new home school program at Café Momentum, giving its interns a flexible and safe place to earn their high school diplomas. Merry’s role as teacher, principal, PTA, and college counselor is a big job, but her passion for at-risk students makes her work a labor of love.

This past weekend, Host Chef Matthew McAllister, along with 26 other local chefs, provided an all-star experience at the latest fundraising event for the 24-Hour Club. The food-centric evening drew a record crowd of supporters eager to try a new bite while supporting the crucial work of providing a safe transitional home for men and women who are making the choice of sobriety.