Local Leadership
2025-2026 Board of Directors
Bios
Debbie Dennis
Debbie Dennis is Oncor Electric Delivery’s Chief Customer Officer, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer. In her current role she has responsibility for customer service, community relations, economic development, branding and communications, as well as all human resource functions. She is also responsible for the strategic direction of Oncor’s philanthropy, community involvement and employee engagement initiatives. In her over 40 years with the Company, Dennis has worked in a number of corporate and customer service functions.
Dennis currently serves on the Board and Executive Committee of the Dallas Regional Chamber and a number of non-profit boards including the Baylor Scott and White Health and Wellness Institute Board (Chair), International Women’s Forum of Dallas Board and is a member of the Texas Women’s Foundation Economic Leadership Council.
Dennis graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree. She is the 2023 WiNGS Ebby Empowering Women Award recipient, the 2020 Athena Award Recipient from the Dallas Regional Chamber, a recipient of the 2019 Audrey Kaplan Inspiring Women Southwest Award from the Southwest Jewish Congress and an honoree of the Dallas Business Journal’s 2018 Women in Business. She is also a graduate of Leadership America, Leadership Texas, Leadership Dallas and a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Dallas Assembly, International Women’s Forum and Executive Women’s Roundtable.
Renda Mathew
Renda Mathew serves as the Dallas Market President at Truist. As a Banker, she has worked with privately-held middle market sized companies for many years. Her twenty plus years in banking allows her to bring solution based financing and planning. Her background aligns with the Bank’s key components of partnering with the community and empowering healthy economic growth while enhancing the quality of life for her hometown of Dallas. Renda attended the University of Texas at Arlington and the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University.
Renda serves on the board of the Texas Women’s Foundation, Parkland Health Foundation, , Nexus Recovery Center, City Year, United to Learn, and Turtle Creek Conservancy. She is co-Chair of the Women’s Inclusion Network for Truist and is a member of the Local Advisory Council for the Truist Foundation. She is the incoming chair of the Leadership Dallas Alumni Association and is a member of the Dallas Assembly, the Dallas Summit and the International Women’s Forum. Her commitment to causes that support women and children are evidenced by her work in the community.
She calls Dallas home with her husband, Russell Hayward, and enjoys time with their four adult daughters.
Alfreda Norman
Alfreda B. Norman is an experienced bank and board executive deploying strategic financial frameworks to help public, private, and non-profit organizations transform communities. Alfreda’s mission is to financially empower communities by addressing market failures and providing a bridge to economic opportunities.
Ms. Norman had a distinguished career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas where she was expert in identifying economic challenges and opportunities, forging partnerships with all levels of stakeholders, and inspiring people and organizations to action using innovative solutions and practices. As the Dallas Fed’s past Senior Vice President and Public Information Officer and a decade-long member of the Executive Leadership Team, Ms. Norman’s responsibilities included setting strategy and driving results for the Bank’s corporate, executive, and digital communications, and community and economic development initiatives.
Among her other leadership roles, Norman served as Chair of the Communities Foundation of Texas, and Co-Chair of the Fort Worth Mayor’s Child-Care Blue Ribbon Action Committee. Currently, Alfreda is Chair of Early Matters Texas, and Co-Chair of the Texas Opportunity Youth Network Leadership Council. She serves on numerous prestigious boards, including the Meadows Foundation, Commit Partnership, Dallas College Foundation, and UT Southwestern Medical Foundation. She is an advisory board member for Year Up Texas and the Jr. League; and is a member of the Charter 100, Dallas Assembly, and International Women’s Forum.
A highly sought out speaker and adviser, who always puts her mission and the entities to which she is dedicated first, Alfreda leaves a lasting mark on the organizations and people with whom she collaborates, those she mentors, and the lives she changes through her work.
Gertrude van Horn
Inducted in 2023 to the Tech Titans Hall of Fame. Winner of Inspire CIO’s 2021 Dallas / North Texas Global ORBIE CIO of the Year. Winner of SEI’s 2020 Women in IT - Luminary Award. These are just a few of the awards and a highlight of the recognition that Trude Van Horn has received in her decades-long career.
A Global CIO and veteran Technology Executive with decades of IT experience. An IT career spanning a diverse group of industries including Manufacturing, Chemicals, Retail and Financial Services. A career of impact and action, with tremendous contributions to global IT Transformation activities, enabling business agility and growth, tens of millions of dollars of impactful technology cost savings and cost avoidance contributions. Known for changing the technology landscape, elevating corporate culture, developing high performance teams, empowering women in the workplace and actively developing the next generation of IT leaders.
Trude is currently a course designer and instructor for Southern Methodist University’s certificate program in Technology Leadership Excellence. She is engaged in many technology forums and advisory boards such as DallasCIO , Inspire CIO, Evanta, SIM, the DFW Alliance of Technology and Women (DFW ATW), and Tech Ball. She is an investor in Prime Women Media, a member of the Dallas Innovation Advisory Council of Vation Ventures. She is a Board Member of Tech Genies, a software development and staffing partner with resources across the globe, and a proud member of IWF, an invitation-only network of the most accomplished women in the world.
Trude challenges and empowers leaders, feels an obligation to invest in mentoring and developing the next generation of technology executives to ensure a diverse pipeline of IT talent, and is passionate about encouraging women to leadership positions in technology.
Born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Trude is a graduate of Temple University, has traveled extensively throughout her career, and currently resides in Irving, Texas, with her husband. She loves golf, bridge, literature, pets, travel and time with family and friends.
Donna Rohling
A long-standing member of the International Women’s Forum, Donna has been active in the Dallas, Atlanta, and Paris chapters since her election in the mid-1990s. Her career spans executive leadership roles including President of the Dallas Apparel and Menswear Mart, President of Wyndham Travel Company, and work with the International division of Trammell Crow. She has served on numerous boards, including the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Anti-Defamation League’s Southeast Region, and GCAPP (Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy& Prevention).
Now based in Dallas after 20 years living in Atlanta, Paris, and New York, she continues to lead globally through her dedicated work with Nairobi-based nonprofit, G-thamini, which she helped bring to fruition in 2012.
She serves on the Dean’s Council of the Rollins School of Public Health and previously contributed to the Grameen Foundation in D.C., the Museum of Television and Radio, and Fashion Group International in New York. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, she earned a B.S. with distinction as an Outstanding Student. As Secretary, she brings IWF-Dallas a global perspective, deep civic engagement, and a commitment to empowering women across sectors.
Trisha Cunningham
Trisha Cunningham is President and CEO of the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB), a $200 million nonprofit focused on eradicating hunger in a diverse 13-county service area. Together with their partners, the NTFB team of more than 200 employees and 35,000 volunteers provided access to 144 million meals in their last fiscal year.
Prior to North Texas Food Bank, Cunningham was a 30-year global marketing, communications, branding, and public affairs executive at Texas Instruments where she most recently served as Chief Citizenship Officer. She currently serves on the boards of Feeding Texas (chair) and the International Women’s Forum (IWF) Dallas Chapter. She is a member of several local organizations and national Feeding America committees as well as faculty in a nonprofit governance program at UT Dallas.
Cunningham has received numerous awards including DCEO 500 Most Influential Business Leaders, Women in Business and Most Inspiring Leader awards, Texas Women’s Foundation Maura Women Helping Women Award, Dallas Business Journal Women in Business honoree, United Nations Global Leadership Award, Collin County Business Alliance Leadership Award, D Magazine, 78 Women Who Make Dallas Great, Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year finalist, Leadership Dallas Distinguished Alumni Award and Junior League of Collin County Nonprofit Executive of the Year. She also received Murray State University’s highest alumni award.
Karyl Innis
Karyl Innis is a career expert, the Founder and CEO of The Innis Company, a global career management firm headquartered in Dallas, Tx. She is an advisor to executives on the matter of their own career success and the career development and management of their employees. Her personal mission is to create breakthrough strategies for executives seeking to grow and transform their work lives.
Every year thousands of people create strategies and take action to accelerate their careers fueled by Karyl’s individual and team coaching, workshops, speeches, articles, and books. She has spent years working with business leaders to break through barriers that prevent them from succeeding to the highest corporate and organizational levels.
A pioneer in program development for the human side of organizational change and downsizing she is a nationally known expert in Career Management, Career Transition and Acceleration. This has placed her in hundreds of venues, stages, boardrooms, convention halls, interview rooms, conference centers, training rooms, sound stages, radio stations, television studios, corporate videos, training programs. Her extensive list of media credits includes video, television, newspapers, magazines, journals, and podcasts. Karyl authored In Search of a Job: Lessons from 10,000 Executives, It Isn’t Easy: A Manager’s Guide to Employee Separations, Personal Branding: Lessons from an Expert and six other career success books. The Wall Street Journal called Karyl’s advice the best you ever heard.
The Innis Company utilizes its expertise to advise, coach, train, create and deliver programs for elite companies and organizations around the world. The firm is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and is a certified woman owned business (WBE and HUB). After graduating with a BA and Master’s Degree from Kansas State University, Karyl began her career as a Workforce Data Analyst, an Executive Recruiter, then Corporate Manager, Executive and Leader before starting the company that bears her name. Karyl is a recognized business leader. An elected delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business, on the Boards of The North Texas Commission and Dallas Chamber of Commerce, she has been active nationally and locally. Karyl is a member of the International Women’s Forum, a past President of the IWF’s Leadership Foundation, a board member and officer and currently on the board of IWF Dallas. In Dallas, she is the former President of the National Association of Women Business Owners, a creator of Capital Concepts, a microloan program. Karyl is a founding member of the Executive Women’s Roundtable and Executive Women’s Partnership; she has served on three private company Board of Directors. Karyl Innis knows why successful people succeed and, if they don’t, how to help them.
Carine Feyten
Carine Feyten is Chancellor of the Texas Woman’s University System and president of Texas Woman’s University. In her ten years at the helm, Texas Woman's has landed three of the largest gifts in university history; tripled the university endowment; added more than $460 million in assets to campus infrastructure; grown enrollment by 6% while closing the one-and-two-year persistence gaps between racial and ethnic groups and maintaining its ranking by US News as having one of the most diverse student bodies in the country; achieved the American Council on Education and Fidelity Investments' 2023 Award for Institutional Transformation; earned the 2023 Seal of Excelencia for intentionally serving Latinx students; launched the public phase of Dream Big—a $125M comprehensive fundraising campaign, one million dollars for every year since the university was founded; grown research expenditures by 130% in the last five years alone; and founded the Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership, with centers for women entrepreneurs, women in politics and public policy, and student leadership. She has invested personal funds into building an ethos of health and wellbeing. By aligning co-curricular programming with academic preparation for a student body that is 90% women and more than half are the first in their family to attend college, the positive impacts of her Health and Wellbeing Initiative can have a ripple effect as women still make many decisions about their children’s nutrition, exercise habits, mental health, financial planning, and instilling a sense of purpose. She started #campuswithaheart to reflect a culture of care that students describe when sharing about their experience with TWU faculty and staff.
Chancellor Feyten holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary education focused on second language acquisition and instructional technology from the University of South Florida. She is a native of Belgium and speaks five living languages.
Michelle McKinney Frymire
Michelle McKinney Frymire is a former CFO and CEO who currently serves on the Board of Directors for NCR Atleos where she is the Audit Committee Chair and is a member of the Compensation Committee. She also serves on the board of Sonder Inc, where she chairs the Audit Committee and the Investment Committee and is a member of the Nominating & Governance Committee. Ms. Frymire previously served on the Board of Directors for Six Flags Entertainment Corporation and its predecessor company Cedar Fair, L.P. She also served on the Board of Directors of Spirit Realty Capital prior to its acquisition by Realty Income.
Prior to board work, Ms. Frymire most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of CWT, a leader in travel management technology, from 2021 to 2022. Ms. Frymire was responsible for leading the company through and beyond the impact of the pandemic, driving the company’s global strategy, overseeing significant investment in the company’s product and technology platforms, and leading the company through a financial restructuring related to the impact of the global pandemic. Prior to serving as Chief Executive Officer of CWT, Ms. Frymire served as President and Chief Financial Officer of CWT from 2019 to 2021. Prior to joining CWT, Ms. Frymire served as the Chief Financial Officer for U.S. Risk Insurance Group, LLC from 2017 to 2019 and Service King Collision Repair Centers from 2015 to 2017. Prior to 2015 Ms. Frymire served in a variety of roles for The Service Master Companies, Inc., a residential and commercial services company, including Vice President of Corporate FP&A and Strategy as well as Chief Financial Officer of TruGreen, a Service Master subsidiary. Before The Service Master Companies Ms. Frymire worked in the airline industry for 15 years where she held roles of increasing responsibility in the finance organizations of Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines, and American Airlines from 1991 to 2005.
Michelle attended Austin College where she received a BA in Economics and The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business where she received an MBA. She and her husband have four children and live in Dallas with their four dogs.
Cynthia Mickens Ross
Pastor Dr. Cynthia Mickens Ross is a Notable Author, Speaker, Coach and Founder & CEO of Cynthia Mickens Ministries, Inc. & Enterprises, LLC. With an unrivaled dynamism and an innate charisma, Dr. Mickens Ross understands the intricate mechanisms of personal evolution and has committed herself to the mission of guiding individuals in their quest to unearth the destiny they were designed to manifest. Her counsel reverberates with the wisdom of seeking significance through connection with The Almighty God rather than relying on the judgments and opinions of others. Driven by her own revelation of purpose and fortified by her resolved path, Dr. Mickens Ross stands resolute in her determination to coach and guide others to their divine destinies.
At the core of her transformative portfolio is the meticulously crafted book, "Path~Way to Purpose® Stories of Victory, and the three-phase 12-week courses, "Path~Way to Purpose®," which serves as a wellspring of guidance in unraveling the tapestry of one's life purpose and subsequently, living a life that resonates with extraordinary meaning. She has graced the worldwide airwaves, television screens, stages, and platforms, further amplifying her impactful message.
She finds immense gratification in her multifaceted role of delivering compelling keynote addresses, coaching senior executives to realize their fullest potential, and offering invaluable personal development and life coaching. Dr. Cynthia Mickens Ross aims to act as a luminous catalyst for profound transformation, a beacon of hope and insightfulness, and an anchored guide on the odyssey towards personal evolution and fulfillment.
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