Catherine Cuellar of Social Venture Partners Dallas to be featured at DallasMeetup
The team at DallasMeetup is excited to announce Catherine Cuellar, Chief Executive Officer of Social Venture Partners Dallas, is the latest Featured Networker debut joining DallasMeetup at Texas Live!
Catherine Cuellar develops talent, strengthens communities, and transforms organizations to solve complex challenges and ensure the timely completion of multibillion-dollar initiatives. She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Social Venture Partners Dallas, where she initiated a strategic plan and secured more than $1 million in sponsorships during her first six months in the role. She is also the author of Deep in the Heart of Tex-Mex, the fourth volume in the UNT Press Seeing Texas series, to be published in fall 2026.
Previously as Director of Communications, Outreach, and Marketing for the ninth-largest U.S. city of Dallas, Texas, Catherine led the City through multiple emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a ransomware attack, an increase in fentanyl overdoses, executive leadership transitions, and an apartment complex explosion. She completed and renovated a $11 million state-of-the-art multimedia production facility in Fair Park without tapping general funds, and launched the City’s first Language Access Center of Excellence, as well as a Spanish-language government access cable TV and streaming media channel. Her team’s multilingual multichannel content won national and statewide awards.
For Grant Thornton LLP in New York City, Cuellar spearheaded executive visibility and thought leadership campaigns at global events including MIT’s AI and Future of Work Congress in Boston, CES in Las Vegas, Microsoft’s Business Applications Summit in Atlanta, Consumer Technology Association’s global CEO Summit in Prague, Leading Women Executives in Chicago, and The Deal Economy conference in Chicago.
As Executive Director of the Dallas Arts District Foundation from 2013 to 2015, Cuellar balanced the budget and doubled revenues. She established the Klyde Warren Park Dallas Arts District Public Improvement District, launched the Global Cultural Districts Network in partnership with the New Cities Foundation, and hosted the New Cities Summit and U.S. Conference of Mayors in Dallas, earning global media recognition. During five years at Oncor Electric Delivery, Cuellar served as lead spokesperson for the century-old utility’s $5 billion modernization serving 10 million customers in more than 400 cities. She also developed senior executives’ key messages for legislative briefings and quarterly investor calls.
Cuellar has spoken about smart cities and creative placemaking at conferences such as South by Southwest (SXSW), New Cities Summit, ULI, and Mpact. A two-time TEDx speaker and award-winning journalist, Catherine has reported for NPR affiliates KERA (Dallas), KCRW (Los Angeles), and WNYC (New York); the CBC in Canada; and The Dallas Morning News.
Catherine’s leadership extends to numerous boards and organizations. She serves as Board Vice Chair and Board Development and Governance Chair for the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is on the State Fair of Texas Advisory Board. Past service includes:
Dallas Area Rapid Transit [DART] board director and Public Affairs & Communications vice chair
Dallas Mavericks Advisory Council (inaugural cohort)
City of Dallas Arts and Culture Advisory Commissioner and Sustainability Chair
SMU Perkins School of Theology and Tate Lecture Series executive board member
Texans for the Arts, Dallas Assembly, Texas Lyceum, Dallas Summit, Charter 100, Recovery Resource Council, and DFW Hispanic 100 board member
A graduate of Leadership Texas, Catherine is also a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and a life member of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO). Catherine holds a B.A. in English from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She and her spouse Paul Williams live in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas with their dog Jade.
Make plans to meet Catherine and her team August 13th! Register Here.
