When you’re homecoming queen and prom queen and student body president and Fielder Award recipient and volleyball player and basketball player and track runner in high school, chances are you depart the place with the highly sought-after, though sometimes dreaded, tag of most likely to succeed.

Good thing Jennifer Sampson has turned out to be the epitome of success – a wife, mother and CEO.

Since 2011, Sampson has served as chief executive officer and president of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the largest non-governmental funder of programs to improve education, income and health in Dallas, Collin, Rockwall and southern Denton counties.

Before that gig she was United Way’s chief operating officer and before that its senior vice president and a bit before that was a junior high schooler at Gunn Junior High where Brenda Gilmore, now IB coordinator at Arlington High School, encouraged her to get more involved.

“So I became parliamentarian of the Student Council at Gunn,” Sampson said.

From there, Sampson hasn’t looked much in her rearview mirror, partly because she was having too much fun in the present. In high school, she excelled in academics even while keeping her hands in an extraordinary amount of cookie jars.

In assessing her success at United Way and Arthur Andersen, where she spent a decade, Sampson said her time at Arlington built her confidence.

“[AHS] let me know that I had leadership abilities and qualities,” said Sampson, who earned her college degree from Baylor and is a Certified Public Accountant. “I received so much encouragement there. What I fondly remember about high school is what a tight-knit group we were, which helped because we were all there to help one another.”

Sampson’s parents were a big inspiration. Her mom showed her the tight rope act of balancing work and motherhood. She admired her father’s work ethic of being the first in his family to attend college.

Now when she leads the strategic business operations that include everything from finance to human resources, she knows where those leadership qualities were first rooted and why they continue to bloom.

“I tell students to find your love of learning because it shouldn’t end just because high school or college ends,” said Sampson, who completed executive education courses through the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “Find that spark and go for it.”

Pictured: United Way of Metropolitan Dallas CEO Jennifer Sampson is a 1988 graduate of Arlington High School.

A Dallas nonprofit organization that has historically specialized in AIDS services has reinvented itself and is receiving new funding and developing programs to reach a wider range of families.

Bryan’s House has expanded its mission from providing services for children with HIV/AIDS to serving children and the families of children with cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome and a range of medical conditions and growing the number of agencies the organization can tap for funding.

In the past year, Bryan’s House has received $315,000 from the United Way for an early childhood education program that serves low-income families, and $450,000 in new funding for an Early Head Start Program for special-needs children, said David Thomas, executive director of Bryan’s House. The organization has also raised $125,000 for a new program for homeless families with special-needs children, known as the Wisdom’s Hope Project.

In the next few months, Wisdom’s Hope will spin off into a separate nonprofit organization that will collaborate with Bryan’s House, which will continue to provide child care and other services for those families.

A collaboration with ChildCareGroup, a nonprofit organization that provides child care, early childhood development and education services outside the home for low-income families, provided the federal funds for the Early Head Start Program, and Bryan’s House recently entered into collaborative partnerships with Parkland Hospital and AIDS Arms to provide smaller child-care programs in two medical clinics in Southeast Dallas and Oak Cliff.

The transportation barrier

Bryan’s House, which employs 50 people, sold its property at 5940 Forest Park Road in the Medical District as part of a strategy to move its programs to multiple sites around Dallas. The programs moved to two new facilities on Pipestone Road in West Dallas and South Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff, using proceeds from the sale of its former site.

The Bryan’s House board of directors arranged a special loan from the Rees-Jones Foundation for bridge funding to allow the purchase and construction of the new main site on Pipestone Road months before the sale of the property closed.

Trammell Crow Residential bought the Medical District site for an undisclosed sum and plans to redevelop it into an apartment community. The property, which includes an 18,000-square-foot building on 3.5 acres of land, was marketed for $6 million.

The goal of the move is to improve access to services provided by Bryan’s House, Thomas said.

“We’re providing early-childhood education services, respite-care services and social services for families that are working and living their lives,” Thomas said. “It’s difficult for them to get across town to bring their children to our location in the medical district. Transportation has become a barrier for them.”

Broadening the mission

As the AIDS epidemic has evolved, fewer children are contracting HIV, and federal funds for those types of services have shrunk. Even though AIDS is still life-threatening, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now views it as a chronic disease that can be managed medically and is moving toward funding it like any other disease.

“We lost a huge amount of funding because the government has been cutting back rapidly on support for AIDS services over the past five years,” Thomas said. “So organizations like ours, they’ve been cutting and cutting funding. We lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Bryan’s House has an annual budget of about $2 million, about the same as it was five years ago, Thomas said. But five years ago, the organization was getting more than $1 million in federal funding that was directly related to HIV and AIDS. Today, Bryan’s House is getting $300,000 to $350,000 in AIDS-related service funding.

“So we’ve lost, conservatively, $650,000 per year,” Thomas said.

Susan Hoff, senior vice president of community impact for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, said the Bryan’s House focus on early-childhood education aligns with a new United Way strategy of funding agencies that address needs in the areas of education, poverty or health care.

Bryan’s House is an effective organization with a history of providing good outcomes, she said, and broadening the organization’s mission will provide more impact in the community.

Rebekah Spencer and her 8-year-old son Joshua are the first to receive assistance under the Wisdom’s Hope Project. Rebekah packed up and moved with her son from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to the Dallas area so Joshua could receive treatment at Children’s Medical Center for Crohn’s disease. Joshua has ulcers throughout his intestines and sometimes needs to use a feeding tube.

“We literally packed up and left and brought everything here for his health,” Rebekah Spencer said.

“We didn’t really know where we were going. We didn’t have a place to stay.” Bryan’s House, through the Wisdom’s Hope project, is paying for an apartment along Central Expressway in Dallas and helping with care for Joshua. “They have been a godsend,” Rebekah Spencer said. “They really have.”

The history

In 1987, a group of volunteers led by Lydia Allen and Stefanie Held, began providing hospice and child care in their homes for children who were sick and dying with HIV/AIDS. A year later, they bought a home in the Oak Lawn area, renovated it, then opened it to continue the work. They named it Bryan’s House after Allen’s son, Bryan, who was one of the first children in the Dallas area to die from AIDS.

Rich Templeton isn’t much one to talk about himself. but unleash him in front of Congress on the topic of American innovation, or at the latest Goldman Sachs investor conference for a technology presentation, and he’s in his element.
Learning of my quest to find out more about the man who leads Texas Instruments Inc., he adjusts his sport coat at his Dallas headquarters and jokes that the Goldman talk in January was “easy stuff” compared to this.

It’s not that Templeton isn’t personable, or knowledgeable, or that he has anything to hide. In fact his dry wit and easygoing demeanor make him instantly likeable, and he can explain the significance of semiconductors so clearly that even a child could understand. The truth is that Templeton, 53, is a savvy businessman and engineer all in one unique package. But he’d rather roll up his sleeves and get to work than talk about it.

“He’s the real deal,” says Brian Toohey, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Semiconductor Industry Association, where Templeton serves on the board. “He’s an incredible executive, incredible communicator, and he has a terrific no-nonsense, straightforward way of explaining complicated technology issues to policymakers and to anyone. He’s just an extraordinary mix of leadership and knowledge, but a terrific, humble person.”

Thoughtful and carefully spoken, Templeton has spent his entire 32-year career at TI, the past eight as president and CEO. Since taking the helm he has been steadily reshaping the semiconductor manufacturer, moving it away from other technologies to focus on analog and embedded-processing growth, all while repositioning its wireless business in the smartphone market. Under Templeton, TI has bet the farm on analog chips, which process and convert “real world” signals—sound, temperature, electricity—into the 1’s and 0’s of the digital world.

The company has its work cut out for it. On average, 13 analog chips per person are sold each year for devices found in places like your car, kitchen appliances, air conditioner, notebook, and smartphone. The chips can make medical devices like ultrasounds portable. They’re being used in intelligent thermostats that adjust to user habits and patterns, and they have vast applications for cloud computing and energy efficiencies not seen before.

The possibilities, Templeton says, seem endless. “Literally every piece of electronic equipment you have at work or home has at least one, if not multiple, analog chips,” he says. “We have a chance to sell something to every customer in the world. The number of companies that can say that are pretty limited.”

Aggressive Moves

The shift in focus represents a giant leap for a company that began selling tricked-out calculators 45 years ago. That segment, which remains important because of its impact on education, accounted for less than 4 percent of the company’s $13.7 billion in revenue last year. With the $6.5 billion acquisition of Santa Clara, Calif.-based National Semiconductor in September, nearly half of TI’s business now is in the analog space.

Some critics say TI paid too much for the struggling company—a whopping 78 percent premium per-share over the closing day’s stock price. But others say if the integration of 5,600 employees and 12,000 analog products goes smoothly, TI could come to dominate the $309 billion analog market. It currently ranks third, behind Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Templeton says that although the final chapter on the National Semiconductor deal has yet to be written, it was a “bold, correct move” given the economy, the opportunity, and his vision for the company.

“There’s some confidence behind that,” he says. “We’re not afraid to make aggressive moves in down economies, while everybody is kind of scared and waiting out the fear of, ‘Is the sun ever going to come up again?’ We learned the lesson over time: Don’t be afraid to make moves when they make sense.

“We saw an opportunity with National Semiconductor and it was absolutely in line with this vision of the world that we have, and we thought the numbers could work. As a result, so far, so good. We’re pleased with the way the customers have responded, and pleased with the team out in California. We’re going to be focused on converting that into great results.”

Templeton isn’t alone in his optimistic outlook. Betsy Van Hees, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, likes TI over all other big companies in the semiconductor sector. The Dallas firm is well-positioned to grow starting in the second quarter, she says, because of its market-share gains in analog and the increasing silicon content in mobile devices.

“We view the consolidation of the analog sector as a considerable positive for the industry,” Van Hees says. “We believe TI made the right decision in acquiring National Semiconductor, because it increases TI’s market share, manufacturing, and sales, as well as provides TI with a greater footprint across several end markets, particularly industrials, where National has been particularly strong.”

Under Templeton and his predecessor, TI has taken an aggressive approach to buying or selling companies that don’t fit in with its emphasis on analog and embedded processors. Since 1996, TI has acquired 33 companies and divested at least 18—from defense to liquid-crystal-display operations—that were not central to this razor focus. (See story on page 53.) Many of those sales and acquisitions were completed during Tom Engibous’ tenure, which ran from 1996 to 2004. But Templeton, who served first as semiconductor group president and later as COO, shared a similar mindset with his mentor and colleague.

“Tom and I worked together well, and we really had a common view and very broad strokes of, ‘Let’s get our company into better businesses, which are analog and embedded processing today,’ ” he says. “We benefited from a great market that discovered us back in the ‘90s in the wireless business, and from not being afraid to make tradeoffs to get into better businesses.”

MoneyGram CEO Pam Patsley, who has served on TI’s board since 2004, says Templeton is willing to take measured risks based on many different perspectives—and a lot of data.

“It has been rewarding to see how he has continued to lead TI through some really challenging economic times,” she says. “He’s not afraid to make some hard decisions, but his sense of balance and fairness is right where it should be.”

Although it might seem unusual that Templeton has spent three decades at TI, he says it’s common for TI’ers (as the employees are called) to stick around for awhile. “It really is a case of a unique culture where we keep challenging people with more,” he says. “The next thing you know it’s 32 years later and you’ve enjoyed what you’ve worked on and who you’ve been able to work with.”

CEO’S Impact

It didn’t take Templeton long after finishing his schooling to join that “unique culture.” One week after graduating with an electrical engineering degree from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., in 1980, he moved to Texas to take a sales job in the semiconductor business at TI.

Growing up in a city outside Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the athletically inclined son of an IBM engineer and schoolteacher says he declared his major on “the first day of showing up” at Union College. It was there that Templeton met his future wife, Mary, a computer-science major. They lived on the same floor, became friends, and he helped her with calculus, she remembers. After they married, the couple settled down in Parker, a sprawling Collin County suburb, where they raised two sons and a daughter.

The early 1980s were a challenging time under then-chairman Mark Shepherd Jr. and president J. Fred Bucy, who was called abrasive and autocratic. TI recorded its first-ever revenue loss of $145 million in 1983, due, in part, to the recession and an unforecasted slump in demand for its home computer. The company was deemed the de facto seller of home computers, even hitting the 1 million mark in sales, but competition was heating up and, eventually, TI exited the business.

Some analysts call those the darker days for TI. But things brightened up in 1985, when Jerry Junkins was named president and CEO. Junkins is credited with loosening up the corporate culture and encouraging innovation, while helping reposition the company to better compete in the 1990s.

“We’ve learned, without exception, that whatever the CEO is like, it drifts incredibly quickly through the whole company,” says KRLD business analyst David Johnson, who has followed TI for nearly three decades. “The personality of the CEO quickly permeates the company. Junkins did an overnight turnaround. This is the group that Templeton came from, the new wave. They had a laser-like focus on [digital signal processors]; that was going to be the great new thing, and they sold all of this great technology. That’s the mold that Templeton came from.”

Junkins died of a heart attack on a business trip in 1996, quickly thrusting Engibous, a 20-year TI veteran already serving in an executive role, into the spotlight as CEO. Another TI vet, Jim Adams, was tapped as chairman.

During “those transitions when faced with such emergencies, these guys did a terrific job,” Templeton says. “The board made some wise decisions about the direction of the company and the choice of leaders.”

For 15 years Templeton worked with Engibous, who’s credited with transforming the company from a broad-based conglomerate to a semiconductor company focused on making chips for the signal-processing markets that have fed the wireless and Internet revolutions.
After years of grooming, Templeton stepped into the president and CEO roles in 2004, and was named board chairman in 2008.
It seems fitting that Templeton’s name may someday adorn a Dallas building or two, much like TI founders Cecil H. Green, Patrick E. Haggerty, John Erik Jonsson, and Eugene McDermott. For now, however, his ambitions lie elsewhere.

“It all comes down to, how well is TI run?” Templeton says. “There is no greater assessment of how well you’ve done than, ‘Do you leave the place stronger?’ A lot of my time and energy and passion goes to that. The same philosophy carries into what you do in your personal life or organizations and groups that you’re affiliated with. If you’re going to invest the time and effort, do you leave it stronger than when you arrived?”

Setting the Tone

Clearly, Templeton practices what he preaches. It isn’t every day, for example, that a CEO leads an internal United Way campaign. But Templeton has quietly taken on that role at TI for the last 10 years, garnering employee support and helping raise millions of dollars for the nonprofit. “Investing in the community that you operate in doesn’t just make sense emotionally, but there’s some pretty sound logic to it,” he says.
Every year, he and Mary visit for a few hours with at least one of the agencies supported by the United Way. Last year, at the Trinity River Mission, they met a 13-year-old girl who was ready to take on the world because of the mission’s edict that she would attend college.

“Her world is changed forever,” Templeton says. “That’s when you get it out of the concept and it jumps to life pretty quickly.”

Templeton is accelerating his involvement this year as the new chairman of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Campaign for 2012. In February he accepted the “silver spurs” from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who was the first global CEO to take on the job. The companies raised more than $4 million apiece in the 2011-12 campaign.

“Chairing the United Way [campaign] was a simple decision,” Templeton says. “It’s an important cause, we care about it as a company, and it’s our turn.”

Jennifer Sampson, CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, says Templeton is the ideal person for the post because TI has a long history of UW involvement, and he understands what it means to give back.

“Rich sets the tone within his company, and he doesn’t ask his employees to do anything he isn’t willing to do himself,” Sampson says. “He’s an engineer with a really big heart. Rich has done an extremely good job at creating a culture at TI where giving back is a priority, and he’s very passionate about it. I guarantee he will knock it out the park this year.”

Another cause close to Templeton’s heart is the promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) education. The TI Foundation has donated millions of dollars to support STEM development, including a $5 million gift last year to the Plano Independent School District to advance STEM education and help launch and develop the district’s first academy in 2013.
“The word philanthropy gets used, but I look at it more as an investment,” Templeton says. “STEM is right at the heart of what we do. A high percentage of us [at TI] are enjoying this work and what we do because we love math and science. We had a great math and science teacher or multiple teachers. [We want to] make sure kids have that same opportunity today, in what turns out to be an even more technologically demanding society. Those used-to-be-nice-to-have skills are on their way to being a baseline of skills you need to have.”

The CEO, who calls himself “an adopted Catholic,” says he and his wife understand that education initiatives strengthen society. So they’ve been big supporters of local Catholic institutions such as St. Marks Catholic School, Ursuline Academy’s French Family Science, Math and Technology Center, and John Paul II High School, where they donated $2 million for an endowment fund.

Templeton has also encouraged research and innovation in his own backyard, which will help to keep the talent pool full for years to come.
University of Texas at Dallas President David Daniel says Templeton was a driving force behind creation of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence, the first and largest international, university-based analog technology center, in 2008. The center is a $16 million collaboration among the Semiconductor Research Corp., the State of Texas through its Texas Emerging Technology Fund, The University of Texas System, UT Dallas, and TI.

“TxACE came to be because Rich was on the board for the Semiconductor Research Corp., and they agreed that analog research was important,” Daniel says. “He convinced them to create the research center at UT Dallas. It enabled us to build a significant space, attract millions of dollars of resources, start the research, and hire people.”

Daniel says Templeton is a frequent UT Dallas visitor who not only visits him, but enjoys talking to and mentoring UTD students.

Work/Life Balance

TI has also been successful in the realm of work/life-friendly culture, garnering a number of awards for that over the years. This truly seems like a place where diverse employees and working families are embraced and allowed to, well, have a life.

Templeton recalls negotiating deals from behind the backstop while coaching his kids’ baseball teams. He understands that children are only young for a short time, and he doesn’t want his employees to regret missing out on activities because of work.

“If your kids are younger, and I did it with mine, and you want to coach their teams, you schedule the practices like they’re a meeting and you get out there,” he says. “You can find a way to get your work done later at night and still do that. We’ve got a good set of people who are modeling that today. The best way is if a leader is standing up and leaving at 4:30; people know that a son or daughter has ballet, baseball or whatever it is. The behavior is now modeled. I don’t know if everybody feels balanced, but they’re encouraged you’ve got to feel good at both.”

These days, with his children grown, Templeton spends about half of his time away from the office, traveling across the globe to visit with some of the company’s 90,000 customers. He’s a big believer that if you want to know what’s going on inside a big company, then spend time outside of it. And, yes, customers are sometimes surprised when the big cheese shows up for a visit. But Templeton points out that he’s not the only one checking in with the customer.

“We’ve got a lot of guys doing that,” he says. “You go around at the senior and intermediate levels; their mail arrives in Dallas, but they spend a lot of time in the world with customers. If you can’t be in touch, it’s going to be tough.”

Inside TI, he schedules regular employee roundtables to learn more about what issues are on their minds. TI has about 35,000 employees in all, 9,100 of them in North Texas. At these roundtables, Templeton says, “you get to the heart of what’s not working, quickly.”

Not surprisingly, Templeton also takes a disciplined approach to his personal fitness regime. A triathlete for 15 years, he tries to work out daily and schedules his competitions to stay on track.

“I’m a big believer if something is on your calendar, it will force you to actually stay active and be in shape,” he says. “The best part of it is training and getting ready for it. In some ways, the parallels [to business] are high. For people willing to put in the investment and the preparation, the race is the easy event.”

He counts former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and commercial real estate mogul Roger Staubach among his friends—but the two don’t
work out together. “I work out a lot, too, but I know I couldn’t keep up with him,” Staubach says. “He’s in great shape.”

Every Thanksgiving morning, Staubach hosts a flag football game in different locations around Dallas, and the Templetons always join in the friendly competition. “They’re a great family and real active in the community,” Staubach says.

American Innovation

Several times a year, Templeton makes the trek to Washington, D.C., for Semiconductor Industry Association board meetings, where some of the country’s most influential industry CEOs preside. He also meets with policymakers to ensure they understand the issues facing his industry.

“Rich has an incredible ability to explain our innovations as an American innovation story that is unique and credible,” says the association’s Toohey. “He’s likeable, and his straightforward way is welcome in Washington.”

Templeton’s discussions often center around the idea that America can out-innovate and out-produce—if U.S. companies are given a fair playing field on trade issues, with competitive tax structures and R&D credits, Toohey says.

The U.S. has some of the finest research universities, but Templeton is frustrated that while the best minds come here to study, employers are limited by high-tech immigration policies.

“Using a sports analogy, these are the best athletes in world. You’ve brought them, you’ve trained them, and then we get wrapped up in a dysfunctional immigration debate as opposed to literally stapling a green card to every masters or Ph.D. in engineering,” he says. “We’ve
got to get that straightened out. It’s a dangerous policy long-term.”

By attracting and keeping the best minds and encouraging U.S. companies to be global leaders, Templeton says, good things will happen here.

Although most CEOs have been busy navigating choppy economic waters, natural disasters are obviously harder to forecast. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami last March created production setbacks for TI by damaging two of its factories, cutting into first-quarter 2011 income, and affecting second-quarter growth.

Templeton says he realized two things during that time. “The first is the culture,” he says. “In moments like that, you couldn’t be more proud of the way people reacted. We had a plane heading to Japan [to TI factories in Miho and Aizu] 15 hours later with volunteers with the right expertise to go and get involved. You just watched the energy of the organization rise up.”

Secondly, the TI team was prepared. It took food, water, and other emergency supplies to the Japanese employees and their families and set up assessment and recovery operations. Wafer production resumed in Aizu within two weeks; production at Miho, which suffered more damage, resumed within a few months.

Because TI owns the 1.1 million-square-foot plant called RFAB in Richardson—it’s the first in the world to churn out analog chips on 300 millimeter, instead of 200 mm, wafers—the company was positioned to respond quickly to the crisis, taking up the production slack.
“You can’t anticipate where those problems will be, but you can design your systems to be more resilient to absorb the impact when those things happen,” Templeton says.

That’s also one of the benefits of TI’s workplace longevity, he believes.

“This is a very experienced team, and we’ve seen the ups and down,” Templeton says. “The organization is not intimidated or distracted by ups and downs. Typically you find yourself able to make the best decisions when you look through those, as opposed to staring at what’s happening here and now. There’s a great benefit of the wisdom of people working here, and the experience of time.”

The story also features Yesenia Lopez, a student who also benefited from the free program by receiving education credits on her tax return. United Way volunteer Billy Rodriguez and Regina Moldovan, senior vice president of marketing, describe how the program helps people take control of their finances.

Watch the video using the player below or on the Univision 23 website.

This generosity and the efforts of the volunteers who ran the United Way campaigns for their organizations were celebrated at the annual Heroes of Hope event. The keynote speaker, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, described how the efforts of United Way supporters to break the cycles of dropouts, poverty and poor health are crucial to the region’s future.

See what happened at the event by watching the videos and looking at the photos below.

Thank you video

Heroes of Hope recap video

Rich Templeton announcement video

Event photos

Congratulations to the award winners

Note: Preventive care that helps parents manage their children's illnesses as early as possible is a key United 2020 health strategy.

One in 110. That is the estimated number of children who have autism in the United States.

A new report is raising concerns about the time it takes to diagnose the development disorder in minority children, sometimes up to one and a half years longer.

Chiniqua Newsome, a mother in Dallas, can relate to that concern. She is raising a son diagnosed with autism.

Jalen has a severe case of the developmental disorder. He’s 15 years old now, but Newsome knew early on something was wrong.

“At the age of two I noticed Jalen stopped talking,” said Newsome. “He went from two to three to four words, to no words at all.”

After noticing the sharp change, Newsome immediately scheduled appointments with doctors and specialists. But it took 3 years for Jalen to be properly diagnosed. “I went back to the doctor and he said ‘just and see what happens.’”

Some medical screenings can detect autism as early as 14 months — and experts say 2 years of age is becoming more of the expected standard for early detection.

Jalen was 5 when diagnosed. “If he had been diagnosed earlier, he would probably be a little bit better.” expressed Newsome.

“It’s very frustrating because you were taught to go to the doctor for everything,” Newsome continued. “You give them the signs and symptoms and you assume they are going to help you.”

According to a new report, Newsome’s situation may not be uncommon. A study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found minority children tend to be diagnosed later than white children — even when socioeconomics were the same.

Susan Hoff with United Way of Metropolitan Dallas says the the report’s findings are not surprising but alarming. “That’s concerning,” said Hoff. “It could be that culturally their families knew less about the signs of autism.”

Researchers are still working to uncover other reasons why there is such a gap in diagnosing whites and non-whites.

Hoff says regardless of ethnicity, parents need to be aware of autism screenings and ask for them early on. “If the physician is not giving the answers they need or they feel is not attentive enough, ask again or try a different health care provider.”

As for Newsome, she was able to find help and hope at the Autism Treatment Center in Dallas for her son Jalen. He enrolled in the program last month after the Dallas Independent School District referred the agency. “It takes persistence and if you have to take your child to different places, do it,” encouraged Newsome. “Don’t give up.”

About four in 10 Dallas residents own so few assets that they would fall below the poverty line in three months without a job, according to a report presented Thursday by the Communities Foundation of Texas.

The report also said about half of Dallas residents with no more than a high school diploma are living that close to the edge. About two in 10 with at least a bachelor’s degree are in the same shape.

Almost seven in 10 have subprime credit scores. About a third have no health insurance. Less than half own homes. About one in six Dallas residents have no bank accounts.

The bottom line: Many Dallas residents have too few resources — savings, investments, credit, insurance — to keep a job loss from rapidly becoming a financial catastrophe.

The figures come from a report commissioned by the foundation. The organization’s officials said their goal was to amass better data about poverty in Dallas in the hopes that would help nonprofits, businesses and government agencies work together more efficiently.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who spoke at the presentation at the group’s Dallas headquarters, said the information should be an incentive for action.

“We have sensed for a long time that America is moving toward two classes: those with assets and those without,” he said. “This should shock us and that should make us sit up and take notice.”

The data, compiled by the Washington-based Corporation for Enterprise Development, was presented twice Thursday. The public show was in front of about 300 people representing dozens of Dallas-area social service agencies and businesses. But before that, the foundation gave a private presentation to more than 20 elected officials and staff members.

That meeting included members of the Dallas City Council, DISD board and Dallas County Commissioners Court, as well as Texas legislators and congressional staffers. At the public meeting, Rawlings said the report should help set priorities for the city. “If we make progress on one thing in Dallas over the next 10 years, make this be at the top of our agenda,” he said. The report was commissioned by the Communities Foundation after the group decided that the best available information about poverty in Dallas was outdated — at least a decade old. The Corporation for Enterprise Development has been producing this kind of poverty analysis for several years, starting at the state level. Dallas was the 13th city to get the detailed treatment.

The data has its limits, acknowledged Ida Rademacher, vice president for policy and research for the Corporation for Enterprise Development. The figures for asset poverty are an estimate using U.S. census data collected from 2007 through 2009. The report notes that “caution should be used when interpreting data on a local level,” and Rademacher could not give a margin of error for the city statistics.

And given the volatile state of the economy, the conditions may have changed since the data was collected.

But even granting the limits, foundation officials said this was better information than they’d had.

For the 300 attendees, many of whom work at social service agencies, the idea that many people in Dallas live below or near the poverty line wasn’t exactly news. But several said they found the presentation interesting.

Alan Lummus, a leader in Dallas Area Interfaith, said he was struck more by who did the presenting than with the information.

“Anyone that is working in the trenches has known of this kind of data for some time,” he said. “That it has become important enough to the funders, to the foundations, to the people who have money, to present this data gives me hope that there will be more money and it will be used more strategically and not ideologically.”

Martha Blaine, executive director of the Community Council of Greater Dallas, said she was intrigued by the way the report focused on assets to be increased rather than needs to be filled.

“It’s framing the issue differently,” she said.

Susan Hoff, a senior vice president of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, said she hoped the information could be used to better pull together the efforts of the many groups working to aid the poor.

“I don’t think we have a lack of service providers,” she said. “We may not be working smart enough.”

The Communities Foundation hopes to broker a smarter coordination of resources, said its president, Brent Christopher. The foundation has already scheduled another meeting of the nonprofit groups for next month to discuss the data and how it might be used to make better decisions about scarce resources. Other meetings, involving government officials and business leaders, are also in the planning stages over the next year or so, he said. But real change will take a while, Christopher said. “Ultimately, the time frame for this is a lot longer than a year,” he said.

See the video using the player below or on YouTube:

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A search in Collin County has led to a disturbing find. Social workers took to the streets Thursday night in an effort to get an accurate count of the area’s homeless population. What they discovered was not only a varied homeless population, but a growing one.

Volunteers canvassed Collin County neighborhoods searching for people like a 44-year-old woman named Debbie.

“Lost my job. Lost my apartment. I lost my car and so I’m just trying to find my way back basically,” explained the woman, who didn’t want her last name used. Debbie was staying at a West Plano hotel. The location is where the homeless mother and her son have called home for more than two years.

Information gathered during the Collin County homeless count won’t be tallied and released until April, but the numbers are expected to be a higher than last year.

“I think people don’t understand that because we are a wealthy county and there are McMansions on every corner… but it’s [homelessness] a serious problem,” explained Lynn Sipiora, the director of the Samaritan Inn Homeless Shelter.

The Samaritan Inn is located in McKinney and is the only homeless shelter in Collin County.

Jimmy Moore lives there with his children. “We had some personal stuff, which brought me here,” said the father of three, who explained how he couldn’t have made it without the shelter. “I struggled for three or four months to pay my bills and then heard about this place.”

Each week, the front desk at Samaritan Inn turns away between 30 and 50 families, simply because they don’t have the room.

Jimmy Moore and the 160 others at the shelter are considered “situational homeless” — which means they’re unemployed and have no savings. That description fits a lot of people including homeless mother Amber Star-Howard.

“When I got here I was really beaten down and didn’t have a whole lot of hope,” she said. Samaritan Inn sits alone because other efforts to build a bigger shelter elsewhere have failed. Neighbors don’t want it "in their backyard."

With an estimated 350 homeless in Collin County, about half are believed to be living in cars or extended-stay motels.

As long as Jimmy, Amber and others living at Samaritan Inn keep looking for work and follow the rules their families receive free meals and can sleep in one of the shelter’s few coveted beds.

Amber said, “Right now they are my security blanket. They brought me in from the cold.”

Samaritan Inn operates on donations from the United Way and faith-based organizations.

Business community support of students, parents and teachers will take on increased importance in light of a decision by the Dallas ISD trustees to close 11 schools, a United Way official said.

Susan Hoff, senior vice president of community impact for the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, said the move was an economic decision that was not taken lightly. One of the United Way's major goals between now and 2020 is to increase the number of students who are graduating from DISD who are ready for college or a career.

So, do school closures move the community closer to that goal?

"That depends completely on how it is handled," Hoff said. "If it's handled poorly and children feel displaced and disenfranchised from schools, and their parents feel the same way, then the consequences could be negative.

"If the transition is done well, and there is support of the community -- if business, nonprofits and schools embrace those students and their families -- then I think (the closures) could help."

United Way supports parent education, parent engagement and after-school programs that are operated on school campuses. It's important that those types of programs that operate on closed campuses continue at the new campuses, Hoff said.

Businesses whose employees volunteer in the schools that are closing should encourage those volunteers to get involved at the campus that the students are transferred to, she added. Teachers, as well, should transition with the students to different campuses, she said.

"As a community, we need to figure out how we can support those children and those parents if they have to transition (to another campus)," Hoff said. "What you want to make sure that happens is that children have as many consistencies as they possibly can."

Dallas ISD trustees voted to close 11 schools Thursday night after a raucous meeting. Trustees voted 6-2 to approve the plan, which district officials say will save $11.5 million. Nine elementary schools and two middle schools open are on the list. The schools have low enrollments.

DISD faces tough budget decisions largely because the Texas Legislature has cut about $114 million in funds for the district this school year and the next.

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas president and CEO Jennifer Sampson spoke with WBAP about the event and the importance of the program. Listen to the interview using the audio player below:

To see site hours and locations, read our frequently asked questions about the free tax help program. Training is going on right now, if you'd like to join hundreds of other volunteers as a tax preparer or translator. And please help share the word about the program with people who could benefit using our helpful online tools.

El texto establece que “la posición presupuestaria de los Gobiernos será equilibrada o de superávit”. Esto en la práctica se traduce en que se permitirá a los Estados un déficit máximo del 0,5% del Producto Interior Bruto (PIB). Esta norma, conocida también como “regla de oro” deberá integrarse obligatoriamente en las Constituciones o leyes de rango similar de los Estados firmantes, que serán los 17 de euro obligatoriamente y los demás de la Unión que voluntariamente se sumen, excepto Reino Unido, y ahora República Checa, que han rechazado el acuerdo.

Los líderes europeos han alcanzado esta noche un acuerdo sobre el Tratado Internacional que consagra la austeridad presupuestaria en la zona euro. La gran noticia ha sido la posición de los checos que se han sumado a Reino Unido y quedan fuera del pacto del euro, según ha anunciado el primer ministro sueco, Fredrik Reinfeldt. El compromiso se ha alcanzado también después de negociaciones entre Polonia y Francia para permitir a los países que todavía no han adoptado la moneda única a que participen en algunas cumbres del Eurogrupo.

El texto establece que “la posición presupuestaria de los Gobiernos será equilibrada o de superávit”. Esto en la práctica se traduce en que se permitirá a los Estados un déficit máximo del 0,5% del Producto Interior Bruto (PIB). Esta norma, conocida también como “regla de oro” deberá integrarse obligatoriamente en las Constituciones o leyes de rango similar de los Estados firmantes, que serán los 17 de euro obligatoriamente y los demás de la Unión que voluntariamente se sumen, excepto Reino Unido, y ahora República Checa, que han rechazado el acuerdo.

Last year, very important legislation was passed which impacted the operation of payday and auto title lenders in Dallas and throughout our state. If you or anyone you know is in financial difficulty and considering a short term loan, these laws protect your rights as a consumer.

During last year’s state legislative session, the Anti-Poverty Coalition of Greater Dallas (including, CitySquare, Friendship West Baptist Church, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the Jewish Community Relations Council, Catholic Charities, along with a number of other non-profit agencies and service providers) joined the Christian Life Commission, Texas Appleseed, Texas Catholic Charities and 500% Interest is Wrong, urging Texas lawmakers to address the exploitative practices of short term lenders.

Payday and auto title loan outfits create a cycle of debt by charging high fees which mask interest rates which can be upwards of 500% APR. With short terms and no partial payments, borrowers often must borrow again at 500% APR in attempts to pay off the loan. The average payday borrower in Texas pays $840 for a $300 loan.

This state-wide collaboration was successful in getting two bills passed which place new restrictions on Credit Service Organizations (most payday and auto title lenders in Texas are registered as CSOs and will be impacted by this legislation). CSOs are now required to:

• Register with the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner, and the licensing fee will fund the Texas Financial Education Endowment
• Report on consumer and transaction data
• Clearly disclose fees, typical repayment patterns, and fees of comparable loans
• Post an OCCC helpline number for consumers
• Provide restitution to customers injured by a violation of CSO regulation or Finance Code

Locally, the Anti-Poverty Coalition prevailed in their efforts to get Dallas’ City Council to take action against predatory lenders. On May 25, 2011, the Dallas City Council unanimously passed a zoning ordinance requiring alternative financial institutions to:

• Operate at a minimum distance of 1,500 feet from another location
• Operate at a minimum distance of 300 feet from a lot in a residential district
• Operate at a minimum distance of 500 feet from an expressway
• Only operate in a freestanding building
• Possess a Specific Use Permit (SUP) in all permitted districts On June 22, 2011, the Dallas City Council unanimously passed a regulatory ordinance requiring:
• The loan principal for a payday loan to be capped at 20 percent of the borrower’s gross monthly income, and auto-title loans are capped at 3 percent of the borrower’s gross annual income
• Limits payments to four installment loans with no renewals, or a single payment loan with three renewals or rollovers
• Each installment or renewal payment pay down 25% of the loan principal

These ordinances took effect January 1.

Predatory short term lending drain wealth out of our communities and hamper economic development. More and more, cities are increasingly concerned that payday and auto title loan outfits depress property values, become magnets for crime and give our communities a look of economic decline.

The economic health of our families and our community is dependent upon being smart about the nature of the businesses that court our patronage. The exploitation of those in financially desperate circumstances is best combated with financial education and the public engagement necessary to make certain these businesses operate with integrity.

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas senior vice president of community impact Susan Hoff spoke with KRLD's Mitch Carr about the effort and who is eligible for help. Listen to the interview using the audio player below:

To see site hours and locations, read our frequently asked questions about the free tax help program. Training is going on right now, if you'd like to join hundreds of other volunteers as a tax preparer or translator. And please help share the word about the program with people who could benefit using our helpful online tools.

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has hired Stacey Paddock Malcolmson as the agency’s new senior vice president and chief development officer to lead the agency in its effort to raise $300 million for the North Texas community by 2015.

Funds raised will support United 2020 efforts to break the cycles of high school dropouts, poverty and unhealthy behaviors over the next decade. Malcolmson begins her new post Feb. 1.

“We are thrilled to announce Stacey as the newest member of our leadership team,” said United Way of Metropolitan Dallas President and CEO Jennifer Sampson. “She’s an extraordinarily intelligent, experienced leader who brings not only a peak skill set to this job, but also a real passion for the meaningful work of United Way.”

Malcolmson heads to United Way from Southern Methodist University where she served as executive director of alumni giving and relations for the past six years. Through her work on the Second Century Campaign at SMU, Malcomson's efforts resulted in explosive growth in alumni giving.

“Stacey is the perfect addition to United Way’s team — a sophisticated, strategic thinker and a collaborative leader who can form lasting connections,” said United Way Board Chair Debbie Taylor, who is also regional director for Citi Community Development.

Before her post at SMU, Malcolmson worked at Plano-based Frito-Lay Inc. for nearly seven years where she held various high-level marketing positions, including senior product manager. Before joining Frito-Lay, Malcolmson worked in marketing at Bayer Consumer Care Division in New Jersey and in investment banking for CS First Boston Corp. in New York and London.

“I am honored and eager to lead United Way’s development efforts — critical to achieving long-term solutions for our community in the key impact areas of education, income and health,” Malcolmsom said.

Malcolmson replaces Rana Smith, who served as United Way’s chief development officer for more than eight years. Smith left United Way in June to lead development at Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal welfare organization based in Utah.

Today’s children are the first Americans since 1900 projected to have a shorter life span than their parents.

I reported that statistic yesterday, but truly it bears repeating. For this generation, being overweight is not just about looks, it’s about diabetes, heart disease, stroke and a host of health issues.

The McKinney ISD is working hard to reverse this trend and is already achieving successes in its goal of becoming the healthiest school district in America. A key component of the District’s efforts is the Healthy Zone School Recognition program, created by The Cooper Institute in partnership with the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the Texas Education Agency to promote healthy practices in schools. The program sets out a series of goals for schools to promote healthy practices plus a recognition program for healthy schools.

Last fall, Burks Elementary School was the first school in the nation to be named “The Healthiest School in America” by the Healthy Zone School Recognition program. Malvern and Caldwell elementaries were also honored as “Healthy Zone Schools – In Training,” which means they are also working the program. Just 12 Healthy Zone Schools and 58 Healthy Zone Schools – In Training will be selected during this 6-year program, and each school will be eligible to receive incentives and funding valued over $7,000, in addition to the guidance and leadership provided by the prestigious Cooper Institute.

McKinney ISD has already received $21,000 in grants from the Healthy Zone School program for the achievements by Burks, Malvern and Caldwell elementaries — funds that are being used to further the District’s Healthy Schools initiatives.

The two main components of the program are the kid-friendly Fitnessgram®, which teaches children about physical fitness, and Nutrigram®, which teaches students about nutrition.

Fitnessgram helps coaches, students and their families assess the fitness of each student and provides improvement goals for each year. Students complete fitness tests throughout the year in several areas such as sit-ups, push-ups, running a mile, etc. to assess their strength and endurance. There is also a body composition assessment based on the students’ height and weight. These scores are used to set goals for improvement in specific areas for that school year. The Fitnessgram assessment results are shared with parents to give them an objective account of their children’s fitness levels.

The nutrition component is being taught through Nutrigram, a program which assesses elementary children’s knowledge and attitudes about food. Nutrigram is designed for third through sixth grade students and includes an educational videogame called, “The Quest to Lava Mountain” that teaches kids about nutrition in a fun and interactive way. The program was created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as an educational tool.

Minshew Elementary also has been recognized for its health education programs, this time by the USDA, not only for serving healthy cafeteria meals in compliance with new USDA guidelines, but also by educating students on nutrition and physical education.

Deputy Administrator of the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service Audrey Rowe visited Minshew in Dec. 2010, to present Principal Susie Towber with the USDA gold award for excellence in school nutrition through the USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge. The program is a component of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to end childhood obesity within a generation.

McKinney elementary schools are also utilizing a curriculum to teach the nutritional value of foods through the “Go,” “Slow,” “Whoa” program. “Go” foods are very healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, “Slow” foods are foods that should be eaten in moderation, and “Whoa” foods have almost no nutritional value such as candy or sodas. Teachers are finding many students have no knowledge of which foods are healthy and which ones are not.

“When we started this program, we were finding that some kids thought an orange soda was good for them because it had an orange on the can,” said MISD Health and PE Facilitator Karin Klemm. “But students are learning and hopefully it will impact the decisions they make in the future.”

While childhood obesity remains a national issue, it is comforting to know there are so many people and organizations working together to change the future through educating our young people. Old habits are harder to break, so starting kids out with the knowledge they need to create good habits from the beginning is certainly the logical first step toward reversing our expanding waist lines.

Two big changes reshaped the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas in 2011.

First, the organization stopped trying to be all things to all people and started putting all of its funding into three areas: education, income and health.

Second, the 86-year-old nonprofit got a new leader. Longtime president and CEO Gary Godsey retired in July and Jennifer Sampson, formerly the chief operating officer, ascended to the top job in September. Sampson, who joined United Way in 2001, is the first woman to hold the chief executive slot.

The United Way will consider its three-pronged approach a success if, by 2020:

• 50 percent more students are prepared for success after high school
• 250,000 Dallas-area people are permanently pulled out of poverty
• Access to health care across the area improves

The nonprofit has shifted fundraising from annual goals to five-year horizons to encourage longer-term, bigger-picture thinking and impact, Sampson said. And, United Way has assembled an all-star lineup of North Texas corporate chiefs to serve as chairman of the fundraising campaign, including AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson in 2011, Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton in 2012 and Kimberly-Clark CEO Tom Falk in 2013.

The change in strategy is resonating with North Texas corporations, Sampson said. Dozens had broken their own fundraising records as of early November. Atmos Energy Corp., for example, beat its previous-year high by more than 22 percent and passed the $1 million mark for the first time. “It feels like a new day at the United Way,” Sampson said. “Positive results will continue to roll in on the fundraising side. We have a lot of confidence that we are going to cross the finish line victorious when we announce our revenue results in 2012.”

By Tammye Nash, Dallas Voice (source)

Bret Camp

Resource Center Dallas was set to dedicate a complete new suite in its dental clinic on Friday, Dec. 16, and RCD Executive Director and CEO Cece Cox said the new suite is being named in honor of Bret Camp, former RCD associate director in charge of the agency’s health services.

“We wanted to honor Bret’s 16 years with this agency, and his knowledge and service to our community,” Cox said. “We felt naming this dental suite after him was an appropriate way to do that.”

Camp left Resource Center Dallas last summer due to health issues.

The dental clinic is housed within the Nelson-Tebedo Clinic, located on Cedar Springs Road near the intersection with Throckmorton Street.

Cox also noted that the costs of construction for the new dental suite and the cost of staffing it for one year came to $125,000, and was fully funded by United Way of Dallas. Those funds were part of the $225,000 total RCD received from United Way.

“Dental care is one of the highest priority needs” for people with HIV/AIDS who access health care assistance in Dallas County, Cox said, adding that facilities to meet the growing need were lacking.

“With this new dental suite, we can serve more clients and we can get them in for care faster,” Cox said. With the new suite in place, she said, RCD’s dental clinic will be serving about 1,000 clients a year.

As federal funding priorities shift and funding for HIV/AIDS-related services decline, Cox said last month that RCD is among those agencies looking for ways to expand its clinical services beyond just the HIV/AIDS community. But, she added this week, doing so will be a long and complex process.

“When you have a program funded with federal money, you have to keep that segregated, completely separate from your other services,” Cox said. “You can just lump it all together.”

Cox also said that RCD officials are considering whether some services now housed at the Nelson-Tebedo Clinic on Cedar Springs Road will remain at that location after the center moves into planned new facilities at Cedar Springs and Inwood Road. Construction on the new facility, designed by architect James Langford who was trained by I.M. Pei, is set to begin in 2014.

Cox said that a lot of the work of the Nelson-Tebedo Clinic revolves around HIV/AIDS testing and prevention efforts, and that the clinic’s current location in the center of the area traditionally considered Dallas’ LGBT neighborhood is most advantageous to that work.

“Right now, the clinic is located right in the heart of the neighborhood. It is a good location for those services, and that is a historically important site,” Cox said. “We do see some big advantages to continuing to maintain a presence there even after our new facilities are built.”

December 21, 2011

New dental suite dedicated at Nelson Tebedo is named for Camp

By David Taffet, Dallas Voice (source)

Bret Camp, former associate executive director for health and medical services for Resource Center Dallas, checks out the Nelson-Tebedo Clinic’s new dental suite, named in his honor on Friday, Dec. 16. RCD’S Executive Director and CEO Cece Cox and members of the Resource Center staff gathered at the clinic for the dedication ceremony, as did Camp, who retired last summer due to health issues. The new facility and staffing was paid for by a grant from United Way. Cox said that the added chair is expected to cut waiting time for appointments from four months to less than four weeks and increase the number of clients served by 175 people to 1,155. Camp said he completed chemotherapy treatment recently, has been given a good prognosis and is feeling strong and healthy.

TI employees and retirees and the Texas Instruments Foundation gave a combined $4.9 million to benefit United Way during this year's campaign. Nearly 5,600 employees across the U.S., including 350 new donors, contributed $2.8 million, an increase over last year's participants and contributions.

In North Texas, almost 46 percent of TI employees gave $2.4 million to the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. These gifts combined with a TI Foundation grant resulted in $4.1 million for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

The contributions go to the local United Way and partner agencies, making an impact and addressing issues in the areas of education, income and health.

Andy Smith, TI director of corporate philanthropy, said employees across the country not only provided financial support, but also volunteered their time and expertise in 2011 to positively affect their communities.

"The effort put forth this year by TI employees to accomplish a successful campaign focused on creating meaningful change in our communities is inspiring," Smith said.

Smith said dedicated TI volunteers across the U.S. led a successful campaign. The competition between the United Way campaign teams is friendly but intense. In Dallas, the Worldwide Procurement & Logistics (WPL) achieved more than 80 percent participation and led the pack.

"WPL is a fun and competitive group," said Shannon Suber, TI's director of Economic Inclusion. "We finished first in business unit participation for the second year in a row. Our 2011 goal was to grow our results and enjoy some fun events along the way. Because United Way is such an awesome organization, folks are excited to participate."

In Dallas, the number of new hires who participated increased to more than 40 percent. TI sites across the U.S. increased participation, with those in Rochester, MN, Tucson, AZ and Stafford, TX, seeing significant growth.

"TI employees take a lot of pride in helping our communities," Smith said. "We are proud of our employees who led our campaign teams and those who gave their money and their time to make a difference. Our communities will benefit because of these efforts and many lives will be permanently improved."

United Way remains TI's and the TI Foundation's primary health and human services focus because the organization reliably identifies the most pressing community challenges, partners with proven agencies, and provides financial support that provides measurable results. TI's commitment is demonstrated at all levels of the company from TI President, Chairman and CEO Rich Templeton's serving as the company's campaign chairman and numerous employees volunteering with United Way in various capacities.

COMMUNITY-MINDED: Jennifer Sampson, president and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, reads to students at an Uplift Education school in East Dallas, which the nonprofit organization supports.

Title

CEO and President,
United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

Why You Need to Know Her

Not just because she's the first woman president and CEO at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the largest non-governmental funder of health and human services in North Texas, but because Jennifer Sampson is changing the way the 86-year-old nonprofit runs.

"I think women, oftentimes, are an underutilized resource," she says. "Women, I believe, have the power to change a community."

Sampson was named to the post in September, following the retirement of the organization's former chief, Gary Godsey. She initially joined United Way in 2001 as chief financial officer, following a 10-year stint as an auditor with a large accounting firm; she was promoted to chief operating officer in 2004.

Her accounting background has helped push the nonprofit toward higher accountability standards — and meeting expectations of the group's estimated 90,000+ donors. "My dad taught me that if you understand how to read financial statements and you understand the financial structure of any organization, you can pretty much do whatever you want," Sampson says.

There's no denying the organization's impact. United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has a $45 million annual budget, more than 5,000 volunteers, and nearly 80 employees. Last year the group released its 10-year strategic plan. Called United 2020, it includes goals for improvements in education, income, and health. As COO, Sampson played a critical role in developing the plan; now she's in charge of implementing it.

"That whole process has been one of the most rewarding professional experiences I've ever had," she says, "because I see the needs in the community. I know how complex these issues are.... It's the mission that keeps me up at night, and it also gets me out of bed in the morning."

Watch the video using the player below or on the CBS 11 website.

In Texas, 40 percent of children are considered overweight or obese.

The United Way, the Cooper Institute and NFL-Hall-of-Famer Troy Aikman are hoping to change that.

Aikman stopped by News 8 to talk about the Healthy Zone School Recognition Program.

Note: Watch the video using the player above or visit the WFAA website.

Age: 41 Occupation: President and CEO, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas — one of the largest private nonprofit organizations in North Texas Neighborhood: Preston Hollow (Photo: Allison Slomowitz)

What was your first job?

I worked for the Texas Rangers in the parking lots at the original stadium in Arlington when I was in high school. I’m so proud of our World Series contenders!

As a child, what job did you dream of having?

I LOVE music, and when I was younger, I always dreamed of being a professional singer and performer. I was the proud president of the show choir in high school, a true 1980s Gleek, and I never hesitated to raise my hand for talent shows — “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow” and “Delta Dawn” were personal favorites and crowdpleasers at Baptist church camps across Texas and Arkansas. At Baylor, I was a Kappa Picker and my swan song was an unforgettable nod to Carmen Miranda in the Kappa Kappa Gamma 1991 All University Sing Act — “Yes, we have no bananas; we have no bananas today.” In my early 20s, I realized that my rock star dreams were hugely disproportionate to my musical abilities and accepted a job as an auditor with Arthur Andersen in Dallas.

What is something people don’t know about you?

I was crowned Homecoming Queen twice — as a senior at Arlington High School, and again as a senior at Baylor University. My dad still calls me “queenie.”

Why did you choose to live in Preston Hollow?

We love the Preston Hollow community — and especially appreciate our friends and neighbors’ spirit of volunteerism. People here are proactive and passionate about giving their time and resources to nonprofit causes they believe in.

What does Preston Hollow need?

I vote for Roma, Italia’s Sant’Eustachio il caffè — the best coffee in the world.

What do you want your epitaph to say?

“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” — George Bernard Shaw

What is your biggest pet peeve?

I am disappointed when people accept failure. Failure is a comma, not a period.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?

• Two ears, one mouth: Listen twice as much as you talk.
• Look people in the eye when you talk to them.
• Stand up for yourself.
• Smile; it don’t cost nothing. (Bad grammar, good lesson)
• If you don’t have the time to do it right, how will you find the time to do it over?
• Always say “please,” “thank you,” “yes, sir,” and “no, ma’am.”
• Learn to think for yourself.
• If you don’t know something, look it up.
• When you need help, ask for it. When others need help, give it.
• Doing the right thing always has its reward.
• If you mess up, apologize.
• Anything worth having is worth working for.
• You don’t need someone to complete you. Complete yourself.
• Successful people make a habit of doing the things unsuccessful people don’t want to do.

What was the greatest gift you’ve received?

My husband, Edward Walter Sampson III, was the first greatest gift on July 17, 2004. The second was our 4-year-old son, Hilton Edward Sampson, born on March 19, 2007. He is named after another very important man in my life, my father, Dr. Jerry Hilton. Dr. J has always been a supermodel for a life welllived, and I will always have extraordinarily high expectations for all the men in my life because of him.

What inspires you?

I am inspired by others who choose — each day — to live a life that matters. Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It is not a matter of circumstance. It is a matter of choice.

What’s on your mind?

I hope the people of Preston Hollow will join me, and countless others, to support the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ United 2020 vision. Together we are focused on changing lives permanently by breaking the destructive, costly cycles of high school dropouts, poverty, and poor health in North Texas. I am committed to making these bold goals a reality, and I am counting on your support. With your help we will change the face of our community forever, and Dallas will continue to be the very best place for all of us to live, work, and raise our families.

Listen to their conversation using the audio player below.

The volunteer event held through REAL School Gardens — a United Way-funded program — yielded an outdoor learning classroom that will be utilized by students at John J. Pershing Elementary School.

“It was great,” said volunteer Kerri Alderman of UPS, who brought along her husband, Rob, and their children, Alex, 9, and Emma, 7. “I love that the kids can help out too. We always want to volunteer as a family but don’t always have the chance. I want to get my kids started young so that they understand the importance of giving back to the community.”

Cindy Hicks, whose been with Citi for 26 years, said she loves gardening and being able to give young students a chance to enjoy a learning garden sounded like the perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Jeanette Robert, of Hillcrest Bank, echoed Hicks, adding that the chance to volunteer with others — more than 25 United Way volunteers attended the event — and “see what’s happening in the community” was a can’t-miss opportunity.

“The big thing for me is not just giving financially to United Way,” Robert said, “but also getting out there and experience giving back to the community.”

View pictures from the event >

Want to get involved?

Sign up for the next United Way and REAL School Garden build >

(DALLAS, TX) — United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) and The Cooper Institute® will join in hosting the groundbreaking Dallas Children’s Health Summit. The Summit is a community-wide event that will bring together health care organizations, businesses, medical professionals, teachers and school administrators, city health professionals and individuals interested in obesity issues in their home or community with the ultimate goal of wiping out childhood obesity in the Dallas area. The summit will take place on November 18th from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at The Cooper Institute on the Cooper Aerobics Center campus, located at 12230 Preston Road in Dallas.

Summit participants will focus on developing a set of measures and goals that regional experts agree will help pave the way toward a slowing of, and eventually the decline of, cases of childhood obesity in this region. Partners will then begin the work of identifying roles and tackling those goals to break the destructive, costly cycle of childhood obesity permanently.

The Dallas Children’s Health Summit will be convening breakout sessions to gather information from key experts to understand strengths, challenges and direction moving forward with the development of a strong collaborative anti-childhood obesity effort in Dallas. Two nationally known speakers and champions for children’s health — Sarah Wu, author of Fed Up with Lunch, and Amy Dawson Taggert, National Director of Mission: Readiness — will inspire participants and ask them to become actively engaged in our work.

About our Speakers

Sarah Wu, author, Fed Up with Lunch
Sarah Wu is a speech pathologist working for Chicago Public Schools. After eating a couple unfortunate school lunches in the Fall of 2009, she decided to eat and anonymously blog her way through a calendar year's worth of school lunch at her school under the pseudonym “Mrs. Q” on her blog FedUpWithLunch.com. The blog quickly became an internet sensation with thousands of hits daily and praise from food activists such as Mark Bittman, Jamie Oliver and Marion Nestle. As the anonymous Mrs. Q, Sarah Wu spoke at The Mayo Clinic's Center for Innovation's Transform Symposium 2010, BlogHer Food 2010 and 2011, Mom Congress 2011 and BlogHer 2011. Wu has written a book about her experience eating school lunch for a year, in which she reveals her true identity for the first time, scheduled to release in October 2011 entitled Fed Up with Lunch: How One Anonymous Teacher Revealed the Truth about School Lunches — And How We Can Change Them! (Chronicle Books). She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and son. To learn more please visit FedUpWithLunch.com.

Amy Dawson Taggart, National Director, Mission: Readiness
In November of 2008, Amy Dawson Taggart became the National Director of Mission: Readiness, the nonpartisan, nonprofit, national security organization led by retired generals, admirals and former cabinet officials. Mission: Readiness works to prepare upcoming generations of young Americans to uphold the country’s national security and economic prosperity by ensuring that they get a good start in life so they are more likely to graduate from high school, stay physically fit and abide by the law. Since 2008, Mission: Readiness has released major national and state-specific reports, including Too Fat to Fight; has met with top-ranking state and federal policymakers; and held news conferences around the country calling for evidence-based investments to improve the odds that young people will grow up to be productive citizens.

About the Childhood Health and Obesity Reduction Initiative

Experts in childhood obesity have met during the year for closed-door summits to develop a regional collaborative to eradicate childhood obesity in our DFW region. The DRC is the catalyst, alongside its membership and leadership of the Health Care Committee, for bringing together the region’s non-profit community focused on obesity issues.

The Childhood Health and Obesity Reduction Initiative was designed to form a community collaborative with an identified lead advocate to advance a strategic, community-wide set of principles and goals toward the slowing of, the decline of and ultimately the eradication of childhood obesity in the Dallas region. United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has stepped forward as the lead advocate to partner with the DRC and will accept the project handoff later this fall. United Way has committed to lead the community to develop a plan for the Dallas area by June 2012.

A key component of this new collaborative will be that all external agendas will be checked at the door. A collective effort of this nature allows for new dollars to flow into this community that will support every group’s programs, should they support the regional plan. Working together we can improve the health of the children of Dallas and continue to lead the Dallas region to become the most desirable place to live and work in the United States.

About the Dallas Regional Chamber

The Dallas Regional Chamber is the area’s leading membership-driven business organization committed to promoting economic prosperity by leading economic development, driving improvements in public education, influencing public policy, and catalyzing and advocating for regional partnerships. The Chamber works to ensure that the Dallas region will become the most economically prosperous region — and the most desirable place to live and work — in the United States. The Chamber is a not for profit organization comprised of businesses which represent all facets of the North Texas business community. For more information, please contact the Dallas Regional Chamber at 214.746.6600 or visit www.dallaschamber.org.

About United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas offers North Texans highly effective ways to help people change their lives forever. United Way is the largest non-governmental funder of programs to improve Education, Income and Health in Dallas, Collin, Rockwall and southern Denton counties. By breaking the cycles of dropouts, poverty and poor health for hundreds of thousands of people over the next ten years, United Way donors, volunteers and advocates will create long-term improvements throughout the region. To learn more, please visit UnitedWayDallas.org.

About The Cooper Institute

Established in 1970 by Kenneth H. Cooper, MD, MPH, The Cooper Institute (CI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to health research and education, housing one of the world’s largest databases on exercise and health. Each year CI develops engaged learners in fitness and health with its courses and nationally accredited personal trainer certification exam (CI-CPT). The Cooper Institute offers web-based tools for schools to track and report on youth fitness and nutrition: FITNESSGRAM® and NutriGram®. For more information, visit CooperInstitute.org.

But one recent Friday — 11.11.11 (Nov. 11) — proved to be particularly special.

That’s when more than 80 United Way volunteers stopped in at 10 Dallas elementary schools and read to students. This United Way volunteer event supported Dallas ISD and the launch of its Dallas Reads initiative.

With bunches of elementary students intently listening from their classroom reading carpets or library corners, United Way volunteers read stories, engaged them in conversation and demonstrated the importance of reading.

“I had a wonderful time. It went so well,” said Alison Woods, of PepsiCo, who read Three Little Kittens to first graders at Bowie Elementary (a Healthy Zone School).

Woods was able to establish a nice back-and-forth with her students, engaging them in their story book.

“I would say the letter ‘M’ and they would say “Meow,’” Woods said with a smile. “We talked a lot…In fact, I had to break away. We were having such a good time; I wish I could have stayed longer.”

The morning was billed as “spend 11 minutes on 11.11.11 reading to Dallas students.” Needless to say volunteers stuck around well beyond the initial 11-minute commitment.

“It was a marvelous opportunity to read to a super group of children,” said Kathryn Waldman, of Commercial Metals Company, who visited Dealey Elementary.
Volunteers hope the mini story time inspires the kids to grab a book on their own or with their families. 

“I know how important it is for kids to enjoy reading,” said volunteer Lauren McCarthy of LIFT (Literacy Instruction for Texas), which receives a United Way grant. “If they begin reading at a young age, they’ll read for the rest of their lives.”

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Watch the video using the player below or on YouTube.

On Nov 11, 2011, beginning at 11:11 a.m., volunteers from across the city will join together to read to Dallas ISD students for 11 minutes to promote the importance of reading. Organizers have been working to recruit 1,111 volunteers to take part in the initiative by reading to students on the same day, at the same time.

Dallas ISD School Board President Lew Blackburn will be joined by Mayor of Dallas Mike Rawlings, and United Way President and CEO Jennifer Sampson to talk about the initiative at the news conference.

The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has been instrumental in recruiting volunteers to read at Dallas ISD schools. Education partners Transamerica and McGraw-Hill are also supporting the effort through the donation of thousands of books to help build Dallas ISD students’ reading collections at school and at home.

The Hampton-Illinois library is located at 2951 S. Hampton Rd.

For more information about the initiative, go to www.DallasISD.org/11-11-11.