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DFW NACE’s 2019 Community Service Project

In 2019 for our Community Service project, DFW NACE provided over 30 students from Project 16 education on how to be successful after High School! We spent the day teaching them the value of networking, dinner etiquette, interview tips, dressing for success and more at Truluck’s in Dallas. After the luncheon event, the students joined our chapter at The Joule for our NACE monthly meeting which allowed them to network with our members and other DFW event industry professionals.

Project 16 is a non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas, and founded by Jade “Lady Jade” Burrowes. On their website, they state: “Our mission is to equip and inspire youth ages 10-16 to realize the broad spectrum of educational paths and career options available to them beyond what they may see in their immediate surroundings. Through our programs and community partnerships, we seek to offer up-close access, eye-opening experiences, and educational tools to help children and teens aspire higher than their circumstances, and to dream big.”

This community service project allowed our NACE members to be involved in several ways. For our evening monthly meeting, NACE members had the opportunity to sponsor the meeting fee so that each of the students could attend. And also to serve as their mentor and host during the evening by introducing them to other members and professionals, and also making sure they enjoyed their time and understood each part of the program. At the luncheon, our NACE members helped by hosting panel discussions, as well as breakout stations for the students to be able to have interactive education and discussion on various topics that would help them to be better professionals in their future.

After the full day and evening of programs, the Project 16 teens left motivated and excited with all of the new knowledge they learned. Some of the students even received internships from our NACE Members! It was definitely a huge success and extremely beneficial for the teens to learn about things that they don’t have the opportunity to learn about in their school curriculum.

Our 2020 DFW NACE Community Service project is in the works and we can’t wait to share more info about it with all of you soon!

Chris Harmon
CEO & Videographer of Harmland Visions and High School Hype
DFW NACE Director of Community Service

All vendors are listed below the photos.

Venue & Catering: Truluck’s Dallas
Videographer: Chris Harmon Films
Photographer: The Amber Studio

For Members: How to Update Your Contact Info with NACE National

Are you receiving our emails??

For active members, it’s important to keep your contact information updated with NACE national so that you will receive communication from our local DFW NACE chapter.

If any of your contact information has changed recently – such as your email, phone number, or mailing address – you will need to update that information with NACE National so that we can update our local DFW NACE roster and member email list. Log in to your account at http://www.nace.net to update your information ASAP and our local roster will be updated. If you are having issues logging in or recovering your password, email chapters@nace.net with your updated information.

As a reminder, if you have created your DFW NACE member directory profile, you can email communications@dfwnace.com to update your information on your profile. And if you don’t have a DFW NACE member profile yet, you can create your own! Just follow the instructions on our Member Directory page.

Applications are Open for 2020 DFW’s Got Talent!


Our theme this year is DFW’s Got Talent and we are proud to announce that applications are NOW OPEN!

Please put together your best talent video between 2-3 minutes long and email that to fundraiser@dfwnace.com by August 1st. We will put together a panel of judges for the video submissions and will pick 10 to participate in our September competition! We look forward to seeing your submissions!

Once we finalize the 10 participants, the fee will be $75 to perform and all others will be used as commercials in between acts. 

The submission fee is $20 to submit a video. All submission fees are a donation to the overall fundraiser. 

Meet the Board: Jennifer Roush – Co-Director of Membership

Tell us about your business or the work you do.  LeForce Entertainment provides high-quality, highly trained DJs to the metroplex! We also have a lighting and AV division! We bring the party!

How long have you been a NACE member? On the board? I have been a member of NACE since 2016. I have been on the board twice now! Once as the Community Service Chair and now as the Co-Chair for Membership.

What is your personal motto?  My personal motto is a Mother Teresa quote, “If you judge people you have no time to love them.”

What is your guilty pleasure?  Sour Candy! 

Which actor or actress would play you in the movie about your life? Sandra Bullock

What does true leadership mean to you?  Leading by example. A true leader shows the way to go!

What is in the trunk of your car right now?  Picnic blanket and bag of stuff to go to Goodwill.  

Meet the Board: Kimberly Rhodes- President

Tell us about your business or the work you do.  I’m the owner of Hitched Events, which is a wedding planning company I started in 2011. We focus on upscale events with beautiful details. I also co-host a podcast for wedding industry entrepreneurs called This Week In Weddings. It’s been my passion project for more than 3 years now!

How long have you been a NACE member? On the board?   I’ve been a member of NACE since 2012 and have served on the board for 5 years (not consecutively).

What is your personal motto?  Life is too short to drink bad wine.

What is your guilty pleasure?  Bravo Television! If it’s trashy reality television, I’m in.

Which actor or actress would play you in the movie about your life? Kerry Washington. I have been told I’m the Olivia Pope of weddings before, which I consider a total compliment!

What does true leadership mean to you?  Leading by example, for sure. I’m definitely not one to shy away from rolling my sleeves up and doing the work that’s often not glamorous.

What is in the trunk of your car right now?  A seat cover that I can unroll and put over my backseats so my child (also known as my dog Deacon) doesn’t slobber or shed all over my car.

Meet the Board: Alex Turzinski – Education Chair

Tell us about your business or the work you do.   I am the Senior Catering Sales Manager at the beautiful Joule Hotel.  I have the pleasure of working with Corporate and social clients to make their event dreams come true.  

How long have you been a NACE member? On the board? I have been a NACE member or 2 years, this is my first year on the board. 

What is your personal motto?  MOTTO: Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. 

What is your guilty pleasure?  I love a good patio in the afternoon with my fiance and our dog!

Which actor or actress would play you in the movie about your life? That’s a hard one… because she’s my all time favorite I would have to say Reese Witherspoon. She’s so dramatic, I love it!

What does true leadership mean to you?  Leadership to me is setting an example of how you would like others to treat you and how you would like for them to act.  Leadership should come naturally to those who take charge in positive ways as they set themselves apart from others. 

What is in the trunk of your car right now?  A pizza shaped pool floatie, jackets (I am always cold at restaurants) and towels. 

Meet the Board: Cam Petty Palmer – Co-Director of Fundraising

Tell us about your business or the work you do. I am Cam, the CEO of Beautiful Event Rentals. I am a leader to an incredible team of people and a speaker and course creator for Event Rental Business owners here in the US and around the world.

How long have you been a NACE member? On the board? I have been a member since 2018 and on the board since 2019 

What is your personal motto? My personal motto is “A limiting belief only has power over you if you give it authority to.” 

What is your guilty pleasure? I love a good relaxing bath with no distractions

Which actor or actress would play you in the movie about your life? Hmm, an actress playing me, I have no clue! I don’t watch a ton of movies or TV.

What does true leadership mean to you? True leadership is servant leadership. Having deep care and intention for the people around you. It isn’t about having the leader at the top and all others under you, it’s about lifting others up and the leader being the foundation.

What is in the trunk of your car right now? In my trunk is nothing. I keep my car pretty darn clean and tidy. I get a car wash once a week and love a clean space! Only thing back there is a charger for my electric car! 

Meet the Board: Amber Knowles – Director of Communications

Tell us about your business or the work you do. I am the Owner and Lead Photographer for The Amber Studio based in Dallas. Through our wedding photography, we have a mission to empower our community and to tell the true stories of the diverse couples we work with. We want our couples to be able to look back on their images and remember how each of the moments felt instead of wondering why we were so obsessed with those Instagram filters. 

How long have you been a NACE member? On the board? I joined NACE in the fall of 2018. And took the fast track to leadership when I joined the board in January 2020. 

What is your personal motto? My personal motto usually shifts with my circumstances. There was a point in my life where I would tell myself “if someone tells you NO or something doesn’t work out, the worse thing that could happen, is that you end up right where you started, which is not a terrible place to be.” And there was another point in my life, where my favorite quote that I used to push myself was “Life begins outside of your comfort zone.” Now, I’m learning not to be afraid of failure, and that it’s necessary for success. I’ve recently been really inspired by what Sara Blakely shares around learning to get comfortable with failure.

What is your guilty pleasure? Ice cream! I have a sweet tooth and can’t get enough.

Which actor or actress would play you in the movie about your life? Zazie Beetz! I loved her in Atlanta but I relate to her personal style even more. 

What does true leadership mean to you? To me, true leadership often means speaking up and doing the hard and uncomfortable work when no one else wants to.

What is in the trunk of your car right now?  In the trunk of my car, I ride around with my light stands and a step ladder. I hate hauling those things back and forth to my car each time I go out to a photography job so they basically just live in my trunk. 

Meet the Board: Angie Moors- President Elect

Tell us about your business or the work you do. My husband and I own FunkyTown Donuts and FunkyTown Donuts & Drafts in Fort Worth. As of March, I accepted a position as the Events & Hospitality Manager at TX Whiskey Ranch, also in Fort Worth.

How long have you been a NACE member? On the board? I have been a NACE member for 8 years, and on the board for 7 years.

What is your personal motto? You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. 

What is your guilty pleasure?   Soooo, I have a few!  An extra dirty martini with Tito’s & blue cheese stuffed olives (no vermouth), TX Bourbon Pecan Old Fashioned, a glass of wine, charcuterie board (I could have this as my meal every day)….and, probably binge watching a Netflix series or documentary.

Which actor or actress would play you in the movie about your life?  Oh, gosh – I have no idea!  Maybe Jennifer Lawrence? She’s been in a lot of great movies and seems to have a funny personality – she also grew up with two brothers who made her tough which got her into sports.  That’s how I grew up and it made me a strong and independent woman. 

What does true leadership mean to you?   When thinking about being a true leader, I think about a past boss I had – she wasn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and jump in with her team. She was always there to help, to listen and provided great advice. She was never too busy to listen to her staff and answered every question/concern with confidence. She respected her team and in return, they respected her. I learned a lot from her and strive to be the best that I can be, as a leader to my team.   

What is in the trunk of your car right now?  An Easter Bunny costume. Haha!!  I was the Easter Bunny this year to help create some-sort of normalcy for the kiddos and their families that came by FunkyTown Donuts for a special treat that day.  This just reminded me that I need to give that back to its owner.  🙂  

Meet the Board: Chris Harmon – Director of Community Service

Tell us about your business or the work you do.

I am a Videographer and I also own a Production and Entertainment company with Harmland Visions and High School Hype!

How long have you been a NACE member? On the board? 5 years a member, 4 years 

What is your personal motto? I am the kind of person you can only truly love when I’m dead and gone… Meaning that I have to raise the bar so high and leave an impact so heavy on this earth, that generations after me will mimic the Chris Harmon model.

What is your guilty pleasure? Popping Bottles in the club…. always making bad financial decisions 

Which actor or actress would play you in the movie about your life? Omari Hardwick

What does true leadership mean to you? Leadership is being able to lead a team and not having anyone do anything that you wouldn’t do. Constantly demanding greatness and nothing less.  Realizing that you don’t have to be a leader because someone said so, but you do it because that’s just who you are.  

What is in the trunk of your car right now? A whole bunch of bull…. naw just kidding… but it’s a lot of trash and broken pieces of something.  I don’t even think the spare tire is screwed in right.