Texas Cultural Trust Announces Four New Board Members

by Texas Cultural Trust

Aladar “Ito” Deutsch is President of Deutsch & Deutsch Jewelers, which has a long history of supporting the arts since 1928. Born in Laredo and presently living in McAllen, Deutsch has served as a Board Member for the Laredo Children’s Museum, President of Washington’s Birthday Celebration and President of McAllen’s International Museum of Arts and Science. He is also currently Vice President of Temple Emanuel in McAllen.

Gay Gaddis is founder and CEO of T3, the largest independent, female owned advertising agency in the country, with more than 225 employees nationwide and a growing roster of Fortune 200 clients. An active spokesperson, writer, and artist, Gaddis also serves on the Board of Directors of Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., is the first female Chairman of the Texas Business Leadership Council, and has received numerous awards and honors, including Fast Company’s “Top 25 Women Business Builders” and Inc. Magazine’s “Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year.”

“It is an honor to serve with Texas leaders and patrons of the arts,” said Gaddis. “My career and success harkens back to my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. All Texans deserve to have their lives enriched by innovative, creative pursuits.”

Renard U. Johnson is the founder of METI Inc., a professional services company that provides systems engineering and information technology support to federal and commercial customers, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, for whom METI is working with 50 nations in jungles, forests and outlands around the world. Johnson serves as chair of the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas El Paso Branch, is a former board chairman of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a member of the University of Texas at El Paso College of Engineering Advisory Board and a director in the Texas Lyceum.

Darrell Windham is a managing member of Dickinson Wright’s Austin office, with forty years of experience representing publicly traded and privately held clients, private equity funds and investors in complex M&A, capital markets, and other domestic and global business transactions. Windham has held leadership roles in many state, local, and national charitable organizations, including serving as President and Chairman of the Texas Exes and as the first President of The Contemporary Austin art museum.

“We are honored to welcome Ito, Gay, Renard and Darrell to the Texas Cultural Trust family,” said Linda LaMantia, Chair of the Board of Directors. “They each bring valuable experience and personal passion to further our mission, and we’re confident that our organization’s future is in excellent hands as they represent our important work within their communities and across Texas.”

Full list of 2018/2019 Texas Cultural Trust Board of Directors:

  • Linda LaMantia, Chair – Laredo
  • Leslie Ward, Vice Chair – Austin
  • Marvin Blum, Treasurer – Fort Worth
  • Mary Lamar Leyendecker, Secretary – Laredo
  • Judy Robison, Immediate Past Chair – El Paso
  • Charles Matthews, At-Large – Dallas
  • Alice Carrington Foultz, At-Large – San Antonio
  • John Beckworth – Austin
  • Ray Benson – Austin
  • Leslie Blanton – Houston
  • J. Bruce Bugg, Jr. – San Antonio
  • Ernest Butler – Austin
  • Gregory Davis – Dallas
  • Ito Deutsch – McAllen
  • Wayne Fisher – Houston
  • Gay Gaddis – Austin
  • Alexis Hunter – Corpus Christi
  • Renard Johnson – El Paso
  • Gene Jones – Dallas
  • Kathleen Keating – Victoria
  • Kathleen R. Kennedy – San Antonio
  • Sharon McCullough – Dallas
  • Sharon Oeschger – Amarillo
  • Kay Olson – Waco
  • Karen Oswalt – Austin
  • Jay Propes – Austin
  • Kristin Salyer – Austin
  • Kay Sanford – Lubbock
  • Tania Schwartz – El Paso
  • Nancy Seliger – Amarillo
  • Laura Street – Amarillo
  • Mark Watson – San Antonio
  • Andrea White – Houston
  • Pam Willeford – Austin
  • Jeanie Wyatt – San Antonio
  • Donna Axum Whitworth – Fort Worth
  • Darrell Windham – Austin
  • Jocelyn Straus – San Antonio

Recent initiatives that Texas Cultural Trust board members have played an active role in include convening a statewide Arts Education Task Force to define equitable access to arts education for children in Texas and participating in a selection committee to select 2019 honorees for the biennial Texas Medal of Arts Awards taking place February 26-27, 2019.