Advisory Board

Regina Nippert
Executive Director
Center on Communities and Education
Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development

Mrs. Nippert is the executive director of the Center on Community and Education. Before joining the staff and faculty at SMU, she served as the executive director of the Dallas Faith Communities Coalition, an organization whose long term goal was for its community partners to be powerfully equipped to eradicate systemic causes of poverty in targeted low-income communities.

Mrs. Nippert has been active for twenty-seven years in a variety of community development settings including the practice of architecture, not-for-profit home building, community and economic development, micro-lending and public education. She co-founded the Dallas PLAN Fund, a peer lending program that has made loans to almost 500 low and moderate income entrepreneurs. She has helped to bring about the reinvestment of more than $30,000,000 in communities across Texas working with Habitat for Humanity affiliates, Dallas City Homes and others.

Mrs. Nippert recently completed four years on the Board of Directors of Unity of Dallas, serving in the fourth year as board president. She has served on the boards of Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity and Trinity Habitat for Humanity. She served for eight years on the board of the PLAN Fund. She received her B.Arch. from Texas Tech University and was licensed to practice architecture in the state of Texas.

David Chard, Ph.D.
Leon Simmons Endowed Dean
Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development

Dean Chard assumed the academic and administrative leadership role at Simmons in 2007. The SMU School of Education and Human Development comprises undergraduate and graduate programs; research institutes, including the Institute for Reading Research and the Gifted Students Institute; and the Diagnostic Center for Dyslexia and Related Disorders. Other programs include teacher education, dispute resolution, counseling, liberal studies and lifelong learning.

Dean Chard has held faculty positions at Boston University, the University of Texas at Austin and served as associate dean in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. At Oregon, he oversaw curriculum and academic programs in the College of Education. He also was a California public school teacher and a Peace Corps educator in Lesotho, Africa. He has been a research review panelist at both state and national levels, including panels of the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education. His research emphasis includes reading and mathematics strategies for early grades, learning disabilities, special education, and reading instruction for students with disabilities. He has published more than 30 research articles; co-authored 12 books, including children’s textbooks in mathematics and literacy; contributed 12 book chapters; and has either written or co-written 18 technical reports, monographs and training guides, most of which focus on reading and mathematics instruction for students at risk for school failure. He is a member of the International Academy for Research on Learning Disabilities.

Dean Chard received his Ph.D. in special education from the University of Oregon and a B.S. degree in mathematics and chemistry education from Central Michigan University.

Yolette García
Assistant Dean for External Affairs and Outreach
Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development

Yolette García joined the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development in 2008. She is responsible for identifying and prioritizing community partnerships and projects for the school. She also develops strategies for communications and promotion. Additionally, she teaches media as an adjunct in the Master of Liberal Studies program at SMU.

Ms. García comes to her position as a veteran public broadcasting journalist and manager for KERA television and radio, the North Texas public broadcasting station. She served the public broadcasting organization in various capacities for 25 years, including serving as executive producer for KERA and KDTN television, and as an assistant station manager and news director for KERA radio.

Ms. García is a co-recipient of a 1994 national Emmy Award for "After Goodbye: An AIDS Story," a documentary broadcast nationally on PBS, and a 2006 Lone Star Emmy for "In the American West: Photographs of Richard Avedon, A Twentieth Anniversary Special." In 2002 she was honored by the Press Club of Dallas with the Buck Marryat Award, given for career excellence in journalism. In addition, she is a three-time winner of KERA's Peter Baldwin Award, given to the employee who has used the greatest initiative to advance the goals and objectives of the organization. She currently serves on North Texas Public Broadcasting's Board of Directors and on the Catholic Charities of Dallas Advisory Board. She also is a member of Town and Gown at SMU.

Advisory Board

Reverend Dorothy Budd
Deacon
The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

Rev. Budd is a former child sex crimes prosecutor for the Dallas County District Attorney's office. She worked as a DA in the Juvenile Division, trying juvenile, domestic violence and child welfare cases until becoming a felony prosecutor in the Crimes Against Children Division. She was the lead child advocate, child interviewer and program director for the Dallas Children'’s Advocacy Center when it was founded.

Rev. Budd’'s undergraduate degree is in philosophy from Colorado. She received her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and received her M.Div. from SMU'’s Perkins School of Theology and was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church. She works for the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas as their chaplain for outreach and mission. She is married to Russell Budd. They have two daughters, Peyton and Kate. Rev. Budd and Peyton have co-authored a book, TESTED: How Twelve Wrongly Imprisoned Men Held Onto Hope.

Serena Simmons Connelly
LMSW

Ms. Connelly worked as a case manager in Dallas nonprofit agencies before entering the philanthropic side of human services in 1999, when she joined the Harold Simmons Foundation as a grant reviewer. She currently serves on the advisory councils of several local organizations: Dallas Women’s Foundation, TCU’s Institute of Child Development, TexProtects: Texas Association for the Protection of Children, and UNT’s Contemporary Arab & Muslim Cultural Studies Institute. She serves on the boards of Human Rights Initiative of North Texas and UNICEF. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and a M.S. from UT Arlington’s School of Social Work.

Lynn Romejko Jacobs, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director, Applied Physiology and Enterprise
Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development

Lynn joined the faculty at SMU in 1980. Along with Dr. Peter Gifford, the chair of the Applied Physiology and Wellness department, Dr. Jacobs helped to create and develop a new major, Applied Physiology and Sport Management. She has been named the Director of Applied Physiology and Enterprise. She teaches the courses in nutrition and applied physiology and enterprise along with supervising the majors’ internships for the applied physiology and enterprise concentration. Dr. Jacobs is also the advisor for these majors. Dr. Jacobs also initiated the wellness experience at SMU’s Fort Burgwin Research Center in Taos, New Mexico. Dr. Jacobs currently serves as a representative from the School of Education to the Center for Teaching Excellence Advisory Board, (August 25, 2008 - Present). Other appointments of service that Lynn has rendered to the university are: faculty facilitator for the Common Reading Experience (August 2008 - Present), Catholic Campus Ministry Board member and chair at SMU (2005-2007), and the Gender Equity Committee (2003-2004).

Daryl Kirkham
President
First Private Bank

Mr. Kirkham is President/CEO and a co-founder of First Private Bank of Texas. He is a co-founder of two other Texas banks, including Northern Trust Bank of Texas, where he was chief banking officer for 14 years. He is a member of Texas Banking Association’s Government Relations Council and a former member of TBA’'s Board of Directors and Community Bankers’ Council.

Mr. Kirkham is a long time member of Wilshire Baptist Church, where he is a deacon, a member of the finance committee and a past member of the missions committee. He has twice chaired the board of Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity and is still active in an advisory capacity. He also twice chaired the board of St. Philips School & Community Center and currently serves on the board of the St. Philip’s Foundation. He is a former member of the boards of directors of the Dallas Symphony, the Fort Worth/Dallas Ballet, Camp John Marc, and the CHANCE Center.

Mr. Kirkham holds M.B.A. and B.S. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Gail, have three children - Kelly (a first grade teacher in Dallas ISD), Stephen (musician) and Katy (nurse). They also have two grandsons - Kai and Jack.

Ellen Pryor
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
University of North Texas Dallas College of Law

Professor Pryor teaches first-year tort law, upper level advanced torts courses, seminars in professional responsibility and insurance law. She is the co-author of two torts casebooks. Her writings in the area of torts, insurance, and compensation theory have appeared in, among other journals, the Harvard Law Review, George Washington Law Review, Maryland Law Review, Texas Law Review, Tulane Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, and the University Of Chicago Press. She is a member of the American Law Institute, and since 2000 has served as an advisor for the drafting of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: General Principles. In 2005, she was named an advisor for the drafting of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Economic Loss. In 2005, she served as the Strauss Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University School of Law. In 2000, she received the SMU'’s United Methodist Award for Scholar-Teacher of the Year. In 2001, she was named one of four inaugural members of SMU'’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. In 2003, she was named to the Homer R. Mitchell professorship in insurance and commercial law.

At the University of Texas School of Law, Professor Pryor served as editor in chief of the Texas Law Review, and received the "Am Jur" award for highest grades in the first year courses torts, property, contracts and civil procedure. She was also a member of the honor societies Chancellors and Order of the Coif. She received awards for outstanding student, student most likely to contribute to legal scholarship, and best student law review note. Following graduation, she served as judicial clerk for a federal appeals court judge, the Honorable Carl McGowan of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She then returned to her hometown of Dallas and worked for a civil litigation firm for four years. During that time, she received the Dallas Bar Association's Pro Bono Award of the Year and the State Bar of Texas' Frank Scurlock Award for Delivery of Legal Services to the Poor.

Professor Pryor graduated from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1974, from Rice University in 1978 and received her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1982.

Hector Rivera, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development

Professor Rivera He conducted his post-doctorate training at the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) in the department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Houston. After his post-doctoral training, Professor Rivera worked as a research assistant professor and scientific advisor at the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics (TIMES) and Department of Psychology at the University of Houston.

His research is focused on child and community development, classroom learning environments, the efficacy of school programs, and teacher professional development in urban and rural settings. Through the office of bilingual education at SMU, Professor Rivera is currently conducting a collaborative study with Dr. Bill Pulte on the implementation of a research-based program for language revitalization of the Chickasaw Nation. In collaboration with Dr. Patricia Mathes, Professor Rivera is the principal investigator for a research project focused on the randomized efficacy trial of a core-reading curriculum for the primary grades (K-3rd).

Professor Rivera obtained his doctoral degree in Developmental Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2001.

J. Kyle Roberts, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development

Professor Roberts joined the SMU faculty in 2007. He is well versed in teaching quantitative research methods to novice learners and has previously taught courses on database management, advanced research design and basic statistics. Further, Professor Roberts has conducted numerous training sessions on multilevel analysis at annual meetings of the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association and the Southwest Educational Research Association. He has authored two book chapters on the multilevel analysis, continues to write articles on multilevel analysis, and has a contract for a book due in 2008 entitled, “The Handbook of Multilevel Analysis” (Hox & Roberts, Taylor and Francis). Professor Roberts has extensive experience in performing analysis with value-added models in work done with the Houston Independent School District in evaluating the Houston Urban Systemic Initiative grant from the National Science Foundation (HU-LINC).

Before joining SMU, Professor Roberts was part of the faculty at the Baylor College of Medicine. During his tenure at BCM, he was the assistant director for research in the Center for Education Outreach and was the research coordinator on several grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Space Biomedical Research Institute and the U.S. Department of Education.

Professor Roberts earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M University.

Rabbi David Stern
Senior Rabbi
Temple Emanu-El

Rabbi Stern is the senior rabbi at the largest synagogue in the South/Southwest United States and the third-largest in the Union for Reform Judaism. He was selected as one of the most influential rabbis in America by Newsweek magazine in 2003 and in 2009.

Rabbi Stern is known for his efforts on social justice. He is the vice-chair of the Reform Movement's Joint Commission on Social Action and Chair of the Commission's Task Force on Economic Justice. He has been a fierce advocate in leading Temple Emanu-El and the Jewish community on issues such as Darfur including the creation of the Dolls for Darfur program and visiting Sudanese Refugees in Chad.

Rabbi Stern is also the past chair of both the Dallas Faith Communities Coalition, the Children's Advisory Board of the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center and the Rabbinic Association of Greater Dallas. Rabbi Stern serves on the boards of both Community Homes for Adults, Inc. and the Dallas Jewish Coalition for the Homeless. He is also associated with the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East, and was a signatory on the group's National Interreligious Leadership Delegation for Peace in the Middle East Appeal to the President [George W. Bush] to Make Israeli-Palestinian Peace a Priority of U.S. Policy. Rabbi Stern is on the editorial board for the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) Journal, and also chairs the Governance Task Force of the CCAR. He is on the prestigious President's Rabbinic Council at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR).

Rabbi Stern graduated with high honors from Dartmouth College, earned his M.A. in Jewish education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC-JIR Los Angeles, California in 1988, and was ordained from HUC in 1989.

Brice Tarzwell
Partner
Bracewell and Giuliani, LLP

Mr. Tarzwell is a partner at Bracewell and Giuliani, LLP. He has broad experience representing public companies in SEC reporting and compliance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. He has represented both issuers and underwriters in a wide variety of debt and equity offerings. He has assisted private companies in capital raising, initial public offerings, stock exchange listings and other market transactions. He has handled numerous mergers and acquisitions on behalf of both the acquirer and the acquired. His clients have included high-end retailers, wholesalers and distributors, banks, broker-dealers and other financial service providers, energy companies and manufacturers. Mr. Tarzwell assists clients in formulating and implementing business strategies within a changing legal and regulatory framework. He is a member of the bar in Texas and Oklahoma.

Mr. Tarzwell'’s affiliations include the State Bar of Texas, Oklahoma Bar Association, Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, Dallas Social Venture Partners, Uplift Education's Board of Directors, and Dallas Regional Chamber's Board of Directors where he serves on the Education Advisory Council

Mr. Tarzwell received his B.A. from Arizona State University and his J.D., Order of the Coif, from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He served on the Editorial Board, University of Oklahoma Law Review.

Paige Daniel Ware, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development

Professor Ware joined the faculty at SMU in 2003, and she was the 2006 recipient of the SMU Ford Fellowship. Fluent in Spanish and German, she was a Fulbright scholar in Germany before moving to Spain, where she taught in a bilingual Spanish-English elementary program.

Her research focuses both on the use of multimedia technologies for fostering language and literacy growth among adolescents, as well as on the use of Internet-based communication for promoting intercultural awareness through international and domestic online language and culture partnerships. Her research has been funded by the International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF), by the Ford scholars program at SMU, and by the National Academy of Education through a Spencer post-doctoral fellowship. In addition to her research and teaching, she is also the principal investigator of a Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) professional development grant that supports secondary school educators in obtaining their ESL supplemental certification.

Professor Ware earned her Ph.D. in education, language, literacy, and culture at the University of California at Berkeley.

Philip Wise
Co-founder
Cienda Partners

Mr. Wise is a founder of Cienda Partners and president of Mission Holdings, a private investment company that has led over $350 million of real estate investments since its creation in 2000. Prior to founding Mission Holdings, he served for 12 years as executive vice president and investment manager for Crow Holdings, the Trammell Crow family holding company, where he had lead responsibility for over $2 billion in transactions and managed a diversified portfolio of real estate, construction materials and real estate service company investments. In that capacity, Mr. Wise served as the vice-chairman of the Infomart, Dallas Market Center and the Box-Crow Cement Company, and served on the boards of the Jones-Blair Paint Company, Title Resources Corporation, Access Communications and the DFW Teleport.

Mr. Wise is actively involved in a variety of national and local charitable and civic activities. He serves chairman of the Advisory Board of Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity, the seventh largest homebuilder in the City of Dallas, and on the executive board of the SMU School of Law.

Mr. Wise graduated from Southern Methodist University with degrees in business, political science and law.