Fort Worth Elects International Leaders for Sister Cities
FORT WORTH, TX – Sundance Square’s Johnny Campbell Takes the Reins
Newly elected officers at Fort Worth Sister Cities International’s 31st Annual Meeting, are Board Chair, Johnny Campbell, Sundance Square; Chair-elect, Veronica Chavez Law, Brackett & Ellis, LLP; Secretary, Lu Pham, Dowell Pham Harrison LLP; and Treasurer, Walter Stucker, UBS Financial Services. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price serves as Honorary Chair.
New board members include: Mitzi Chollampel; Robert Chu, Jr., MD; Jeff Davis; Casey Dyer Oliver; Kelley Eubanks; Stacey Guillén; Jay Horn; Tom Law, Jr.; Richard Lowe; Mike Micallef; Patrick Miller; Tricia Nguyen, MD; Judy Schmeltekopf; Fredrick G. Slabach; and Melissa Thompson.
Kids Who Care was awarded the Eisenhower Award for Organizational Involvement presented by Mark Nurdin, Bank of Texas and last year’s recipient, and Julie Johncox was awarded the prestigious Bob Bolen Award for Outstanding Board Leadership presented by last year’s recipient Ann Rice.
“The annual meeting is a time to review accomplishments and recognize those responsible for our successes,” said Michael Bennett, Bennett Benner Partners, outgoing Chairman of the Board. A few of the year’s accomplishments were highlighted by President and CEO Mae Ferguson who said, “This year we sent delegations to Japan, China, Cuba, and Mexico. We coordinated youth exchanges to seven cities for over 100 students and welcomed 165 students and educators to Fort Worth creating a $14 million economic impact on the city of Fort Worth.”
Other elected officers include: Richard Casarez; Travis DeVault; Staussa Ervin, EdD; Ashley Freer; Greg Irwin; James Meintjes; Pat Miller; and Mary Jo Polidore. City chairs include: Hannah Behrens; Michael Crain; Paul Geisel, PhD; Sheryl Harris, EdD; Greg Jackson; Michael Roemer, PhD; and Anette Soto.
“We have many things to look forward to next year. We’re going to Cuba in February, Jordan in April and Swaziland in September; we’re welcoming new mayors from Germany and Japan; and we are recruiting students currently to go to each of our sister cities on educational exchanges,” said Campbell. “We do this because we’re citizen diplomats. We care what the world thinks about the U.S.A. and we want to know more about the rest of the world all in an effort to create friendly relations which is needed more than ever.”