THE STORIES BEHIND THE DALLAS SUMMIT

The Dallas Summit was founded in 1989 by several notable women leaders including two of the region’s most well-known feminist leaders, Maura McNeil and Virginia Whitehill, both deceased.  The Women’s Policy Forum in Ft. Worth provided a structural model for forming The Dallas Summit in 1989.  The original By Laws of The Dallas Summit were drafted by Reginia Montoya (member since 1989), the chair of By Laws committee, around a table in the offices of Dr. Sandy Steinbach, also a member since 1989.  Working with Regina were many of the initial members of The Summit many of whom were also the women leaders of the community, two of whom went on to serve as President in the earliest and most formative years:  Dr Suzanne Ahn, widely credited with being the driving force of The Dallas Summit and attorney Louise B. Raggio, the first woman graduate (in 1952) of the SMU School of Law, and a barrier breaker for women not only in Texas, but also in the United States.

The early leaders wisely collected and maintained the earliest records and papers of The Dallas Summit from its founding , and when the DeGolyer Library at SMU founded its Women of the Southwest Archives in 1993, many of The Summit’s  original records  were donated to the special collection and are housed there.  Since 1993 when the collection opened for the public, and at the time of the 25^th anniversary celebration of the Archives of Women of the Southwest, (March 2018), many past and current leaders of The Dallas Summit served on the campaign at SMU, “The Ladies of the Southwest”, to help raise $1,000,000 to endow the archivist and curatorial position overseeing this unique collection.  Since 1993 and for years since that time through approximately 2009, the records of The Dallas Summit have annually been donated to SMU for permanent storage as well as use by both researchers and the general public.  Many of the most widely known organizations supporting women have records there including the SMU Women’s Symposium; the Women’s Council; the Women’s Issues Network; the Women’s Center of Dallas; the YWCA (WINGS) and the Dallas Women’s Foundation (now Texas Women’s Foundation).