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Board of Advisors

Having the right team of advisors to help us navigate the deep waters of the social impact space is vital to the long-term success of BE The Delta.  We're so grateful for this top-notch team of advisors who have a depth of knowledge in their respective fields and a passion for community impact that is amazing to see in action.  

Kristine Schwope

Kristine Schwope, owner of Class Act Creative Solutions, has been an event planning and strategic marketing professional for over 18 years specializing in maximizing revenue and community outreach for non-profit organizations, state associations and boutique corporations. Among other community engagements, she serves on the boards of Dallas Furniture Bank, Family Compass, and on the City of Dallas Citizens Development Commission (Community Development Block Grant), overseeing $25 million in federal funding for citizens in need.

 

"I believe in BTD because passion = progress. Whether it is connecting volunteers with meaningful opportunities to serve in our community, measuring the results of a corporation's skills based pro bono services to improve their civic commitment and workplace satisfaction, or teaching organizations new ways to ignite growth through philanthropic efforts, the leadership of BTD has the tenacity, relationships, and expertise to deliver. Tapping into technology in order to make these services easy to access and effective is exciting to me as an entrepreneur. Bottom line? I would personally use these services as a business owner, individual volunteer, and community leader and I believe others will, too."

Mary Irozuru

Mary Irozuru is an Associate with Bell Nunally. She focuses her practice on the representation of clients in a broad range of transactional, business contract, and entity governance matters, including real estate, private offerings of equity securities, mergers and acquisitions, banking, financings, entity formation and restructuring of business entities.

 

In addition, Mary regularly represents individuals and private and public companies in a variety of contractual matters, including employment and consulting agreements, manufacturing and distribution agreements, and intellectual property and other technology agreements and licenses.

 

Noteworthy

  • Selected by attorney peers as a Texas Rising Star® Texas Monthly, 2014

  • Columbia Journal of European Law Managing Editor

  • Human Rights Internship Program, Columbia University School of Law

  • Founder’s Day Award New York University (in recognition of consistent academic achievement) 

Valerie Hope
M. Robert Turnage

M. Robert Turnage is a consultant specializing in organizational development, human performance improvement, and corporate education initiatives. His clients have included Bell Helicopter, TXU Energy, PG&E, Dell, and AT&T. He has developed award-winning training programs and multi-media initiatives.

 

He believes in the transformative power of creativity and education and has served on the board of directors for the Dallas Screenwriters Association. He has a MA in eLearning from the University of Colorado, Denver as well as a number of professional certifications in instructional design and eLearning. A writer, photographer, editor, and audiophile, he lives in Richardson, TX with his wife and daughter.

Mary Margaret Gibson

Mary Margaret has had a successful 35-year career in owning, operating, and managing businesses. She spent seventeen years as a management consultant in international business development and operations for Fortune 10 to medium-sized companies.

 

Mary Margaret’s expertise is in the area of operational and market expansion. In the area of non-profit management, Mary Margaret used her background to design and secure a patent for a business model for non-profit sustainability called the Wraparound Incubator.

Sammy Haddad

Sammy is an experienced CPA who has worked in public accounting, conducting financial and compliance audits of privately held businesses. His work consists of compiling individual, partnership, and corporate tax returns, as well as researching new tax legislation and tax saving scenarios for clients.

Valerie Hope is a regional director of talent development for the Hyatt Corporation. Her role takes her passion for developing leaders, facilitating workshops as well as learning and growing and allows her to share it with other hotel professionals all over the US, Mexico and the Caribbean. The latest endeavor she and her counterparts have been focused on is supporting hotels throughout the Americas in embracing Hyatt’s culture of creativity and innovation.

 

She kicked off her Hyatt career after a series of serendipitous events while working as a meeting planner at the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce. She describes that experience as a testament to the power of networking. In the 10 years Valerie has worked for Hyatt, she has moved throughout the human resources function as a generalist, recruiter and trainer.

 

Although Valerie is a native Spanish-speaker from Panama and has a love for Latin dancing, she claims Dallas as her home and has the cowboy boots to prove it!

 

"I've known Lexie for the past 13 years and have witnessed her passion for serving her community through both her personal outreach and her organizational influence. What better way to use the gifts she's been given, but to teach others how to do the same. Be The Delta is the spark she has harnessed to help you serve in an even more meaningful way."

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