Regina Montoya

President and Board Member

Regina Montoya is a Harvard-trained attorney who has been nationally recognized as one of the top lawyers in the country, and she is a former award-winning television commentator.  She is the CEO & Chairperson of Regina T. Montoya, PLLC. Ms. Montoya is a frequent public speaker on a wide range of issues including healthcare, poverty, diversity and children.

One of the first Latinas to earn partnership in a major corporate law firm in the United States, Ms. Montoya received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Minority Counsel Program of the State Bar of Texas. Recently, the American Bar Association selected Ms. Montoya as a recipient of the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.  

In 1993, Ms. Montoya served in the White House as an Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.  In 1998, she was nominated by the President to serve as a U.S. Representative to the 53^rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Ms. Montoya also served as the Senior Vice President, External Relations and General Counsel at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, the seventh-largest pediatric health care provider in the nation.

A leader in the nonprofit community, Ms. Montoya is the immediate past-Chair of the Board of the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF).  She is a member of the Board of Directors of Girls Inc. (National Board), the Texas Book Festival, the Center for Public Policy Priorities, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society, Inc. (Secretary of the Board), Dallas Education Foundation, and the SMU Tate Lecture Series. Ms. Montoya has received numerous awards for her corporate, philanthropic and nonprofit accomplishments. Among her awards are the Harvard Alumni Association Award, the Susan B. Anthony Award from the League of Women Voters of Dallas, the “Can Do!” Award from the Wilkinson Center and the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Real Woman Award. Ms. Montoya has been recognized by numerous publications for her achievements, including Hispanic Executive Magazine, which featured her on the cover of its July/August/September 2014 edition and Hispanic Business magazine, which twice named her one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the US.