Former corporate counsel, Mary Kay Cosmetics. Prior to working at Mary Kay, Stacy worked for LegalPeople, LLC as a contract attorney. She analyzed and reviewed documents in large-scale litigation cases for law firms and corporations, including Jones Day and Hewlett-Packard. Stacy has already generously given her time to the Dallas Institute. She has reviewed many contracts and offered legal advice without charge. Stacy is an active volunteer, spending much of her time at Hockaday with her 8th grader, Birdie.

President, Quest Capital Management, which oversees more than $1 billion in investments. Blessing helps people preserve their wealth and maximize their impact in the community through charitable giving. (Named for Chief Kalita, the chief of the Alabama Coushatta tribe in the 1800s.) Kalita’s connections to the Dallas Institute have deep roots; her father, Henry Beck, served as chair of the Dallas Institute Board for many years.

Brian Diggs, a staunch technology advocate and community engagement visionary, stands as a dynamic force in our quest to shape a brighter future. With a career marked by transformative accomplishments, Brian's journey is distinguished by his ability to forge profound connections between technology and social impact.

In his role as the Co-Founder of Web Apps Agency and the visionary Founder of Community Serve, Brian has pioneered platforms that ingeniously harness the transformative potential of technology to uplift the most vulnerable communities. His project management and technological prowess culminated in the development of an innovative community engagement strategy for the esteemed Houston Metro Next program, a testament to his commitment to effecting meaningful change.

Walter Elcock retired in April of 2013 from Bank of America after 39 years in management, ranging across human resources, operations, and retail banking, managing the 5,000 retail branches across the country as well as the market president network. He also served as president, Bank of America Texas. Walter has been a member of the board of trustees for the Dallas Museum of Art over the last ten years, serving in the capacities of chair and president as well as interim director in 2016. He is also a board member of the Trinity River Conservancy and Highland Homes. His wife Laura has served as a member of the Reading Partners North Texas board for the past two years. Walter and Laura are both graduates of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and have two daughters, Hilah in Larkspur, CA and Catherine in Brooklyn, NY. They have five grandchildren: Jasper, Elsa, and Luke are in Larkspur, with Holden and Maddie in Brooklyn.

Matrice Ellis-Kirk is a senior member of the firm’s Board Recruiting Practice and head of the firm’s Dallas office. Having a passion for topics related to governance and diverse boards, her current search work focuses on the boardroom. Matrice is active within the business and civic communities, serving on a number of boards, including the DFW International Airport and The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. She has served on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, the University of Pennsylvania Board of Visitors, as a non-executive director of public company boards and also as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Women’s Empowerment.

Prior to joining RSR Partners, Matrice worked for over 18 years with two global recruiting firms, Heidrick & Struggles and Spencer Stuart. There she led board assignments for non-executive directors for public and privately held companies. She also conducted senior level search assignments for business-to-consumer companies across multiple functions. In addition, while at Heidrick, she was managing partner leading Diversity Advisory Services and the Global Knowledge Management organization; and as a member of the management committee, in a North America corporate role leading the Client Service Organization where she streamlined internal processes.

Prior to a career in search, Matrice spent several years leading the Dallas office as vice president and office manager of Apex Securities, a Texas-based investment banking firm. Previously, she worked as director of the Office of Management and Budget with Dallas Area Rapid Transit and earlier with MBank Dallas in several banking roles. Matrice holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Ron, have two children, Elizabeth and Catherine.

He has served as President of Human Rights Initiative of North Texas and Chairman of The Thanks-Giving Foundation, and as a director of the Dallas Holocaust Museum, and of the Parkland Foundation and as Co-Chair of the successful $150 million philanthropic campaign for the new Parkland Hospital. He serves as a director of KERA and the SMU Tower Center, on the advisory board of KIPP DFW, as advisor to the McDermott Scholars Alumni Association of the University of Texas at Dallas, and has served as President of the DFW Alumni Association for Rice University. For the environment, he has served as Chairman of the Dallas Zoological Society and as a director of the National Tree Trust, and serves as President of Scenic Dallas and Scenic Texas, and also as a director of the Arbor Day Foundation and Texas Trees Foundation. And for the arts, he has served as a director of The Arts Community Alliance, and now serves as a director of the Dallas Theater Center and the SMU Meadows School.

Born in Dallas, Texas, Justin is a graduate of Morehouse College and SMU Dedman School of Law. He also studied Human Rights law at University College at the University of Oxford in Oxford, U.K. After law school, Justin served as a prosecutor at the Dallas County District Attorney’s office, prior to establishing his private practice that focuses on criminal law, civil rights litigation, prisoner clemency, police brutality cases, sports contract negotiation and campaign management.

Some of Justin’s other cases have been featured in several local media outlets in the Dallas/Fort Worth community. His work has also garnered national media attention in the New York Times, Washington Post, Times Magazine, NBC’s Today Show, CBS Evening News, ABC’s Nightly News, BBC, CNN, Fox News, BET, and The ROOT. “Through my practice, I seek to not only obtain justice for my clients but I hope to use each case as a tool to make our justice system equitable and fair for all who may come in contact with it.” Outside of his professional endeavors, Justin advocates for Mental Health Awareness, Criminal Justice Reform and Social Justice.

He serves as a board member for the prestigious Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture and Achieve Inspire Motivate program: A unique second chance program for non-violent offenders. He has also been named as a BMW Herbert Quant World Responsible Leader, Forbes8 Mastermind and a Partner for Social Venture Partner’s Dallas. Along with his professional and philanthropic endeavors, Justin is a public speaker who speaks regularly about Criminal and Social Justice Reform.

Wesley L. Nute, Jr. serves as General Counsel for Irving Independent School District. A dedicated and experienced Texas school law and employment attorney with a proven track record of providing strategic legal counsel to educational institutions, municipalities, and private employers, Wesley has represented school districts as both in-house and outside counsel while advising on student and employment matters, providing board governance advice and counsel, as well as litigating in both state and federal courts. Wesley’s prior experience includes an insurance defense litigation practice and leadership as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Dallas.

Wesley earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law and received his Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy Studies with a minor in Economics from Duke University. In addition to his law practice, Wesley is active in his community and generously shares his knowledge in academic spaces and in the areas of art and culture. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the UNT Dallas College of Law instructing law students in the arts of negotiation and interviewing and counseling clients. He also sits on the Bond Oversight Committee for the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District. 

Wesley is a member of the School Law and Labor and Employment Law sections of the State Bar of Texas, the Dallas Bar Association, the J.L. Turner Legal Association, and the Patrick E. Higginbotham American Inn of Court.

Vice President of Finance and interim CFO, Infusion for Health. Gordon brings finance and analytics experience from investment banking, consulting, and operating roles with such companies as CVS and Humana. Most recently, Gordon lead middle market pharmaceutical supply chain investment banking efforts for Raymond James, (including coverage of ambulatory infusion centers like Infusion for Health). Gordon holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an alumnus of Williams College where he majored in Economics and Mathematics.

Betty Regard currently serves on the boards of The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, The Hockaday School, the Family Place Endowment Board, Chiapas International, and co-chairs the Advisory Board of the Dallas Women’s Foundation.

Regard is a graduate of The Hockaday School, Southern Methodist University, and has a Master’s degree in Counseling Education from the University of North Texas after which she worked as a counselor at the Family Place.

In 2018, Regard received the Award for Excellence in Community Service from the Dallas Historical Society.

Her hobbies include tennis, reading, and traveling, especially in France where she studied in college and where her husband was born. They have two daughters and six grandchildren.

Dr. Nancy Cain Robertson currently serves on the Board of Directors of Westwood Trust (NYSE), Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, Trinity Trust, Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations and is a Life Trustee and Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Robertson also served three terms as a trustee of The University of Dallas, where she was a member of the Executive Committee, and one term as a trustee of The Hockaday School. Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed Robertson

Commissioner on the State of Texas Commission on 21st Century Colleges and Universities, and she served as well on the Board of Visitors of Trinity College at Duke University and the Executive Board of Southern Methodist University Libraries; she remains a member of the Board of Visitors of Columbia College at Columbia University and on the Advisory Boards of the World Affairs Council and of the Dallas Women’s Foundation.

In 2001, Robertson received a Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation to serve as a United States Public Delegate to the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, a post she held for one year beginning September 10 on the eve of the national tragedy. Robertson holds a PhD in Literature from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas, where she taught the Greek and Roman Epic portion of the University’s required course on the Literary Tradition.

Robertson is a core faculty for the Dallas Institute’s Teachers Academy and Principals Institute programs.

Deedie Rose is a founding board member and current chairman of the board of the Trinity Park Conservancy. She is a current trustee and past chair and past president of the Dallas Museum of Art Board of Trustees and is a founding board member of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. She has served as a member of the National Council of the National Endowment for the Arts and the board of the National Park Foundation. She is a past chair of the board of Public Radio International, and also serves on the boards of numerous other not-for-profit organizations, including Texas Christian University, the Dallas Theater Center, Hoblitzelle Foundation and Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Ms. Rose has received the Anti-Defamation League Humanitarian Award, the TACA Neiman Marcus Silver Cup Award, given annually for distinguished service to the arts, and in 2013 received the Linz Award, given annually to an individual whose civic efforts created the greatest benefit to the city of Dallas.

Casey Woods is a humanities teacher in the Cowan Academy at I.M. Terrell for VPA and STEM. She earned her master’s degree in English at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, while instructing courses in Writing and Rhetoric. She has taught English in California, Texas, and abroad at both the secondary and collegiate level. In 2018, she was selected for a Fulbright award to Luxembourg where she served as a cultural ambassador for the United States and taught American Studies at the University of Luxembourg.