Jennifer Burr Altabef

Jennifer Burr Altabef is an active civic volunteer. In addition to her board service at CFT, she serves as Chair of the Board of North Texas Public Broadcasting (KERA), Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Southern Methodist University, and Chair of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts Executive Board. She also serves on the boards of the NPR Foundation, the AT&T Performing Arts Center, and TACA.

Before devoting herself full-time to civic and philanthropic involvement, Jennifer practiced law in Dallas for 28 years, with a focus on representing employers in labor and employment counseling, compliance and litigation. She served as a law clerk for Senior United States District Judge Joe E. Estes, as a shareholder at Locke Purnell Rain Harrell, and a partner at Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal.

Jennifer received her B.F.A. in Journalism, cum laude, from SMU and her J.D. from SMU.

Jennifer has received SMU’s Distinguished Alumni Award, TACA’s Silver Cup Award, The Dallas Zoological Society’s Good Egg Award, and Texas Appleseed’s Good Apple Award (along with her husband, Peter).

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP / ADDITIONAL BOARD SERVICE

Jennifer is the immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Theater Center. She is also a previous chair of the Dallas Zoological Society and SMU’s University Libraries Executive Board. Additionally, she served a previous term as chair of North Texas Public Broadcasting (KERA), as chair of The Thanks-Giving Foundation, and as a board member of the Global Fund for Children and Big Thought. She served on the capital campaign committee and as co-chair of the Parent and Family Fund at Northwestern University, and on the Capital Campaign Committee for SMU’s Unbridled and Ignited Campaigns.

She is a member of the Texas Philosophical Society and Charter 100.