Byron Sanders: Unlocking Greatness
For more than 30 years, Dallas’ Big Thought has been working to equip youth in marginalized communities to imagine and create their best lives, for themselves and for the world. The organization is now a national model for arts education, after school programs, and juvenile justice intervention. And is now one of six community partnerships in the U.S. helping scale national best practices in social and emotional learning (SEL).
Byron Sanders took the helm of the organization in 2018 and has been building on the organization’s legacy of using creativity to unlock the greatness within his students and his staff.
Texas Trees Foundation Rooted in Dallas for 40 Years
Since 1982, Texas Tree Foundation’s mission has been to preserve, beautify, and expand parks and other public natural green spaces in Dallas and surrounding areas. What started as a small organization to simply plant trees has expanded over the years to include a research division, school programs, and urban tree farms. Over the years, the Foundation has merged and collaborated with several other organizations, like Treescape/Dallas, which has led to greater impact and organizational growth.
We caught up with Janette Monear, current President & CEO and she shared what the Foundation is rooted in now. “One of the things I learned very quickly when I came to Dallas is that you have to have some strategy to move things forward, especially in 2007,” says Janette. “I came to Dallas from Minneapolis and I will tell you, working in Dallas, there is a can-do entrepreneurial spirit that I’ve never seen in any other city like it.”