Speakers: Dallas
Karla Garcia
Trustee and Board Secretary | Dallas Independent School District
Trustee Karla Garcia is a proud native of Southeast Dallas and a product of Dallas ISD schools. Garcia was inspired to run for Dallas ISD District 4 trustee because she wanted to address the inequities that she saw in the public school system, particularly in Southeast Dallas. Her goal is to represent the perspective and needs of students in her community.
Garcia’s parents came to the United States from Guanajuato, Mexico, with a dream of a bright future for their children. Her parents’ strong desire to see her obtain a college education, led Garcia to attend Dallas ISD’s Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, the first public all-girls magnet school in the state of Texas. She was the first in her family to attend college and studied public policy and entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Garcia has traveled extensively to broaden her global perspective. During her last semester at UNC, she worked at the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics at the U.S. Department of Education. Her unique experiences in the private and public sectors while working in Washington, D.C., London and Dallas have helped solidify her aspirations in public service.
After graduating from UNC, Garcia returned to Dallas looking for a way to have an impact in her local community. She is currently working with the Dallas County Promise to make college education possible for all students.
Michelle Kinder
Director of Social Change Leadership Programs | Stagen Leadership Academy
Michelle Kinder is a nationally recognized social emotional health expert, writer and keynote speaker. She is the former executive director of Momentous Institute and has worked in executive leadership for over a decade. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and has worked in children’s mental health for more than two decades. At Stagen Leadership Academy, she is the Director of Social Change Leadership Programs. With Rex Miller, she is co-authoring the book, WHOLE: What Teachers Need to Help Students Thrive, which will be released in 2020. Michelle graduated from Baylor University with a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and the University of Texas with a master’s degree in Educational Psychology.
Under Michelle’s leadership, Momentous Institute was named one of the top 100 Best Workplaces for Women and one of the 50 Best Workplaces in Texas by Fortune magazine and Great Place to Work.
Michelle is a Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project and has articles featured in more than a dozen publications including TIME, Washington Post, Texas Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Mindful Magazine and Huffington Post. In addition to her opinion pieces, Michelle is a published poet. In 2018, Michelle was honored as one of the Faces of Hope by the Grant Haliburton Foundation and as Dallas-Fort Worth Teach for America’s Honorary Alum. Recently, Michelle was honored as Juliette Fowlers’ 2019 Visionary Woman and was selected by the Dallas Historical Society to receive an Award in Excellence in Education.
Michelle grew up in Guatemala and is fluent in Spanish. She lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, Patrick, and their two daughters, Maya and Sophia.
Anne Moses
President and Founder | IGNITE
Anne Moses, President & Founder, IGNITE. Anne Moses has more than years’ experience in social justice and political organizations across the non-profit, political, and academic sectors with a focus on women and girls. In 2010, Anne founded IGNITE, a nationally recognized 501c3 that is building a movement of women who are ready and eager to become the next generation of political leaders. IGNITE has grown rapidly to become the largest and most diverse young women’s political leadership program in the country. Anne’s previous senior leadership positions as Chief Operating Officer for Emerge America and Majority Council Director for EMILY’s List informed her passion and expertise in the arena of gender parity in political leadership. Throughout her career, Anne has also worked as a consultant in the non-profit and philanthropic arenas, with clients across the environmental, veterans affairs, domestic violence, and health and human service sectors. She has served as Principal Investigator on federal, state and local evaluations regarding the impact of welfare and health care reform on low-income individuals and communities. Anne and her work have been featured on CBS, CNN, NPR, Fox News, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Vox, Bustle, Refinery 29 as well as numerous international and domestic articles on women and leadership. Anne holds a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, an MSW from New York University, and a B.A. from Middlebury College. She is also a proud graduate of the Nightengale-Bamford school.
Meredith Walker
Co-Founder and Executive Director | Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls
Meredith Walker is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, the online community dedicated to helping young people cultivate their authentic selves. Since its inception in 2007, the organization’s website and YouTube channel have become destinations for inclusiveness, positivity, intelligence, and imagination. Walker travels near and far to promote the mission of Smart Girls, from serving as the journalism envoy for the U.S. State Department Bureau of Culture and Education’s mission, to spending time at the Al Za’atari and Emirates Refugee Camps, to visiting remote primary-care clinics on delegations to Haiti and Malawi.
Walker began her television career under the mentorship of legendary journalist Linda Ellerbee at Nick News. As a producer of that show, she traveled the United States interviewing kids for the Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning series. The experience became the foundation of her deepening interest in the lives of young people. She went on to serve as the head of the Talent Department for Saturday Night Live, where she quickly became close friends with Poehler. The two later joined forces to create Smart Girls, the result of their shared vision of an online community that encourages and celebrates girls who are experiencing adolescence.
Previously, Walker was a William J. Clinton Distinguished Lecturer at the Clinton School for Public Service. She was twice a guest of the Obama administration’s White House, both to host the Champions of Change for Computer Science Education summit and to serve as an expert panelist for The White House Summit: Breaking Down Gender Stereotypes in Media. Walker returned to Washington, D.C. for the first summit of The United State of Women, where she and Poehler served as co-panelists on the subject of “Revolutionizing Gender Norms.”
Walker has been named a “Profile In Power” finalist by the Austin Business Journal and “The Confidence Builder” by Austin Way. Tribeza Magazine called her “unapologetically, brilliantly herself” when naming her one of their 30 “Persons of the Year.” She was the September 2016 cover woman for Austin Woman Magazine.
Her appointments include the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders Advisory Council, the Common Sense Advisory Board for Gender Equality, the UN Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change (GICC), and the CARE Action Advisory Council. She also teamed up with the Austin-American Statesman for her outdoor series Pocket Adventures and has been published by Poetry and Motto for Time.
She currently lives in Austin, Texas.