Discuss the lack of defined focus on the potential to increase employment, income levels and tax base growth by “intentionally” designing and implementing small-scale, community resident-centric economic development models

Increase consciousness levels with a bias for action on the part of professionals in the urban design, urban planning, architectural, engineering, developers, policymakers and related spaces regarding their respective roles in moving beyond problem causation and problem identification to solutions development

CONVERSATIONALISTS:

Co-Sponsor
Regina Montoya
Chair, Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty

Regina Montoya juggles many roles nationally and locally including: Chief Strategist of the JMC Strategy Group, Hunt Institute Fellow at Southern Methodist University, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and the Chair of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ Task Force on Poverty. Under her leadership, the task force identified key drivers of poverty in Dallas and presented several recommendations to reduce poverty and close the opportunity gap. Today, the task force continues to report on the pervasive social and economic impacts of poverty on Dallas residents.

Regina was one of the first Latinas to both graduate from Harvard Law School and to earn a partnership in a major corporate law firm. She served as an Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Clinton administration, and she was nominated to serve as a U.S. Representative to the 53rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. In addition, Regina was the Senior Vice President, External Relations and General Counsel at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, the seventh-largest pediatric health care provider in the nation. Also, Regina was the chief executive officer of the New America Alliance, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the economic advancement of the American Latino community.

Regina is highly active in the business and nonprofit communities, serving as the immediate past Chair of the Board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), as a member of the Boards of Directors for Girls Inc., the Texas Book Festival, ChildCareGroup, the Center for Public Policy Priorities, the University of North Texas at Dallas Foundation, the Tate Lecture Series (SMU), the Year UP D/FW Advisory Board and the National Committee for the Latino Victory Fund. She is a Trustee Emerita of Wellesley College.

Regina has received numerous awards for her achievements, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Minority Counsel Program of the State Bar of Texas, Latina Lawyer of the Year from the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Harvard Alumni Association Award, the Susan B. Anthony Award from the League of Women Voters of Dallas, the “Can Do!” Award from the Wilkinson Center and the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Real Woman Award. Ms. Montoya has been recognized by numerous publications for her achievements, including Hispanic Executive Magazine, which featured her on the cover of its July/August/September 2014 edition and Hispanic Business magazine, which twice named her one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the US.

Hon. Kevin Felder
Dallas City Councilmember District 7

Kevin Felder is a successful real estate broker and small business owner with over 25 years of experience. He specializes in corporate relocation, assisting transferring employees with finding a new home, if they are moving to DFW, and in the marketing and sale of their home, if they are leaving DFW. 

Kevin has earned five real estate designations, among them are: ABR, CRP, GDS, TCPM and TCLPM.  He has served on several city boards and commissions such as:

Industrial Development Corporation, Southern Dallas Development Corporation (5 years) and Vickery Meadows TIF (9 years).

He attended Richland College, Indiana University and the University of Texas at Dallas, earning degrees in Real Estate and Business Administration.

Kevin is very active in community affairs and was recently elected Vice-President of the Dallas Branch of the NAACP and serves on the executive board of the Dallas Branch.  He won the Freedom Fighter Award from the Dallas Branch in 2014. 

He is a precinct chair, deputy voter registrar and election judge. Kevin also chairs the advisory committee for House District 100.

In 2013, he served as Foreman on the Dallas County Grand Jury.

His top priorities are:

• Major home repair program for District 7

• Development of mixed-use mixed income housing

• Creating robust and sustainable economic development

• Revitalization of Fair Park and the surrounding neighborhoods

Kevin ran for this seat, because there are overwhelming issues of benign neglect in District 7 that needed to be addressed and no one had done so. He wanted to see more economic development happening in his District such as, quality grocery stores, the repair of our streets and sidewalks, better code enforcement, animal control, police community relations and mixed income housing development.

He wanted to work on homelessness and poverty and bring jobs to District 7 and to see Fair Park become a year-round destination and tourist attraction with food festivals, rides, games, museums and a park.

Kevin is an open-minded consensus builder.  He wanted to find common ground, win-win outcomes and diversity among contractors and suppliers at every level on all development projects.  He seeks to establish partnerships through collaboration, goal sharing and teamwork.

Monte Anderson
President, Options Real Estate

Monte Anderson is President of Options Real Estate, a multi-service real estate company specializing in creating sustainable neighborhoods in Texas’ southern Dallas and northern Ellis counties. Since 1984 his focus has been to improve the living and working environments in these communities where he was born and raised. Monte is an outspoken and frequently recognized advocate for policies and practice to serve urban neighborhoods.  

In the Trinity River Corridor of Dallas, he is responsible for the renovation of the historic Belmont Hotel, a 68-room motor court hotel with restaurant and bar which was the recipient of Preservation Dallas and Preservation Texas awards. Surrounding the Belmont, Monte helped develop a more complete neighborhood with a range of projects including housing, a photography studio, animal hospital, fitness center, dog park and restaurants. Also in Dallas, he repurposed Tyler Station, a blighted 1930’s manufacturing plant, into a transit oriented co-working facility, reconnecting the iconic property with its adjacent neighborhoods. Both projects have been recognized with the North Texas Council of Governments’ CLIDE Award.

In Duncanville, Texas, Monte has been a formal partner with the City to advance economic and real estate development in over a decade of activity. He has partnered with or assisted many entrepreneurs to increase the number of owner-occupied buildings on Main Street. With over two dozen projects in the largely one-story downtown area, his work reintroduced mixed-use buildings in this first ring suburb for the first time in several decades. He co-founded the Duncan SWITCH monthly market to create a pipeline of startup businesses to grow the economic health of the core business district. Monte was also instrumental in the conversion of an abandoned Kmart to a tortilla manufacturing facility and Mexican restaurant.  Main Street is a CLIDE Award winner. 

In Midlothian, Texas, Monte is incrementally building MidTowne, Midlothian, a 131-acre mixed-use, traditional neighborhood development over a 25-year period. This is a multi-generational development connecting schools, parks and small retail buildings with multigenerational housing.  MidTowne is also a CLIDE Award winner. 

Currently Monte is working in DeSoto on an innovative retail concept called DeSoto Market Place, formerly a 50,000-sf retail center that had declined and was providing no real value to the surrounding neighborhoods. Working with the City of DeSoto and the DeSoto Economic Development Corporation, the center is being repurposed into a retail incubator which will house startup retail, restaurants and office users. The exterior includes a newly created space for retail trailers with overhead cafe lighting to visually improve the center. 

Monte is a past President of the Oak Cliff Foundation, the entity that restored the historic Texas Theatre in Dallas. He served as president and founding member of the North Texas Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism and is also a founding member and senior faculty member of the Incremental Development Alliance, a group dedicated to training small developers nationwide to strengthen their own neighborhoods through incremental development. He is a past chair of the DeSoto, Cedar Hill and Oak Cliff Chambers of Commerce and Best Southwest Partnership. 

In his spare time Monte enjoys playing with his grandchildren, his cats and listening to rap music. 

Carl Sherman
Texas State Representative-Elect
District 109

Carl Sherman, Sr., has been identified as a transformational leader in faith, business and government.

A man of strong religious faith, Carl presently serves in the role of Senior Pastor in the Church of Christ.

As a trailblazer in both local politics and public administration, he was recently elected as State Representative Elect of District 109. Carl was elected as the first African-American Mayor of DeSoto, Texas, in 2010 and was re-elected in 2013.

Carl also previously served as City Manager in both the cities of Ferris and Hutchins, Texas.

Recognized as one of the most promising leaders of the 21st Century by the Urban League, he earned the AT&T Alex Award for a patent application for his startup company, eTelcharge.com Inc.

In all his endeavors, this esteemed Texan has benefited from the love and support of Michelle, his lovely wife of 30 years, as well as that of his five children and three grandchildren.

A successful entrepreneur and businessman, Carl previously served as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of eTelcharge.com, and earned the AT&T Alex Award for a patent application. He was recognized by the Dallas Urban League as one of the Most Promising Leaders of the 21st Century.

His dedication and commitment to public service reach beyond the citizens of the Best Southwest area and include the North Texas region. In 2016, Carl was appointed to the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) Board of Directors by Dallas County Commissioners Court to develop and maintain high-quality roadways in North Texas.