Texas Nurses Association, Assistant Program Director

Deborah, a registered nurse who is certified in neurolinguistic programming, is truly a social change champion. She currently serves as a member of the March of Dimes Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait, co-chair of the Public/Professional Education Awareness Committee for the Texas Office for the Prevention of Developmental Disabilities, and expert panel member for the Texas Department of State Health Services Healthy Texas Babies Initiative. Deborah has worked closely with Texas Department of State Health Services Title V staff on various statewide projects.  She previously served as a Health Subcommittee member for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Task Force and a member of the Men Making a Difference Coalition, which focused on the prevention of teen pregnancy through the provision of case management services to young fathers.

During her recent term as President of the Texas Healthy Start Alliance, Deborah worked in the critical intersection and opportunity between the home visitation and domestic violence fields.  Through her keen vision of healthy babies and healthy moms, she recognized that home visitors have unique access to people’s homes and play an instrumental role as early detectors for violence in the home, which results in earlier intervention. Her leadership on bolstering this critical connection between fields continues to receive national attention.  As such her strong contribution benefits not only Texas families but informs approaches across the country.

Texas Office of the Attorney General
Deputy Attorney General for Child Support 

Since 2004 Alicia Key has been the Deputy Attorney General for Child Support in Texas. Under her leadership, the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has consistently received recognition as having one of the highest performing child support programs in the country – providing more child support to families than any other state.  Ms. Key’s recognition that financial support is only one part of the picture for families in the child support system has guided the Child Support Division’s development of a range of programs and services designed to respond to many challenges faced by families in Texas. Over the past eight years, Texas has developed a family-centered approach to child support that includes: teen parent services, help for parents with visitation and access issues, employment programs for noncustodial parents and a major emphasis on helping survivors of family violence get child support safely.

Thanks to Ms. Key’s vision and commitment to families, the Texas child support program has reached out to family violence advocates and programs across the state to increase the safety of survivors needing child support services, strengthen referral networks between child support and family violence programs, and expand the family violence training for the more than 2,400 child support staff working in offices across the state.  On a variety of national platforms, Ms. Key and her staff have highlighted the importance of integrating family violence awareness throughout the child support system as well as the importance of working collaboratively with experts in the family violence field.

The OAG recently created a series of high quality educational videos in collaboration with TCFV which involved interviews with family violence advocates, survivors of family violence and child support staff on how survivors can increase their safety while accessing the child support system.

D. W. Rutledge
Executive Director, Texas High School Coaches Association

During his 16 years of coaching, D.W. Rutledge was one of the most successful coaches in Texas high school football history, winning four state championships in the state’s highest classification, 5A. The stadium in Converse Texas is named after him. He co-authored a book and curriculum titled Coaching to Change Lives that is still widely used across the country. However coaching to him means much more than developing physical prowess. He believes that athletics offer coaches a unique opportunity to build the character of young athletes D.W embodies the very mission of the association: To help and serve our Texas high school coaches as they work to help and serve our student athletes. “HELPING COACHES TO HELP KIDS.”

As Executive Director of the Texas High School Coaches Association, Coach Rutledge has prioritized TCFV’s Coaching Boys into Men program. He has offered access to his 21,000 members to raise awareness of the program and has been instrumental in its implementation in Texas high schools. A new initiative of the Association under his direction is the Game Changer Leadership Summit, a forum which brings together a community of coaches tapping on their leadership to be ambassadors for change in the lives of young athletes. A focus is on young athletes where a father may not be present in the home. More information can be found at the Game Changer website, http://www.coachessummit.com/index.html.

The Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) is the principle advocate and leadership organization for Texas high school coaches. THSCA provides the highest quality representation, education, and services to Texas high school coaches and affiliate members, and enhances the professionalism of coaches and the schools they represent.

Coach Rutledge is truly a champion; his vision and wisdom on and off the field is truly remarkable.

Founder and Chairman of Texas Olefins Company and
Texas Petrochemicals Corp.
Philanthropist

Dave C. Swalm was “a self-made man who achieved international success in the petrochemical business as well a man who set an example of public service that few can emulate,” according to a description by his alma mater, Mississippi State University. He is further described, most appropriately, as a man with a purposeful life. Mr. Swalm died on April 14, 2008 at his home in New Ulm, Texas, leaving behind a tremendous legacy which included support of the small towns he affectionately called home and the causes he held dear. He made lasting gifts, and TCFV honors him posthumously for his many contributions that continue to address family violence in Texas.

In 1979 he established the Swalm Foundation to fulfill the obligation he felt to give back to the community and to those less fortunate. Over the Foundation’s 26-year existence, grants were made to support charitable organizations, mostly in Texas and mostly to social service agencies, providing assistance to the homeless, the hungry, the abused, and to educationally and culturally disadvantaged youth.

In 2006, Mr. and Mrs. Swalm established the $5 million Swalm Legacy for Safe Families Endowment Fund and selected TCFV as the fund administrator. Since that time the earnings from the corpus have been distributed to Texas domestic violence programs. To date, $ 1,052,351 continue to provide key support to critical services such as shelter and counseling, legal advocacy, education, transitional housing, transportation and a host of life-saving services for families in crisis.

Mr. Swalm declared often that he had had a good life and had been blessed by God with good fortune, family, friends, and fun. Through his giving spirit, many others have been able to find those same blessings in life.