2026 July Preston Hollow Advocate

Hello!

OPENING REMARKS

By JEHADU ABSHIRO

You know when I tell people my job, their first instinct is to say, “like Miranda Priestly,” or some other fancy editor. And I assure them, hyperlocal community journalism doesn’t really have space for all that. My job is probably more similar to her first assistant, except I have to do payroll.

For more than a decade, our July issue has been our women’s edition. For about six years, it was referred to as Fierce Females. We’ve gone back to just referring to it as the women’s edition.

In the entirety of the Advocate’s existence, even when my predecessor, Rick, was running the show, we’ve had a staff made predominantly of women. Seeing as our audience averages 60% women and most journalism schools skew female, it makes sense.

Our women’s edition has featured an interesting cross-section of women across the city — a world champion boxer, one of the creators of Sesame Street, a leader in community gardening for public schools, the women running some of the most influential PR companies, neuroscientists, artists, nonprofit leaders and teachers. The list of dynamic, creative and exciting people we’ve written about is comprehensive.

That’s why, for the month of July, we’re sharing a story of one of the many women we’ve written about every day on social media. You’ll see a special section in our newsletters featuring the weekly seven.

One of my favorite aspects is how many times we find these women because their significant others, colleagues, children and friends contact us to let us know how influential or kind they are. How much they believe in the work she’s been doing. How she’s changed lives. How they’ve pioneered in a space that needed to be changed. She’s one of the best people they’ve met.

But this issue is particularly special to me because it marks five years since I’ve been the president of Advocate Media. Back in 2021, when we were making the transition into a nonprofit newsroom and I was appointed the president in the midst of a pandemic and general uncertainty, I was 26 years old. I regularly remind Rick what an insane decision it was to leave his legacy in the hands of someone who could barely rent a car without young driver fees, for crying out loud.

But the perk of working in this industry is talking to an exhaustive list of people who can teach you a little bit of something.

This includes our former editors and neighbors, like Keri Mitchell, who is running the Dallas Free Press, or Lisa Kresl, who spent two decades at The Dallas Morning News, and our Judy Liles, who kept everyone, including Rick, in line. Or our former staffers who left our humble abode for fellowships, to chase stories much bigger than themselves or start their own businesses. There are our interns who have become news anchors, reporters, lawyers and Ph.D. candidates across the country. And of course, there’s our staff members like Jynnette Neal, who has been at the Advocate for more than 25 years and seemingly has an archival memory of every story and photo ever produced here.

I’ve begun writing significantly less as the years have gone by (eight years!) and the number of photo shoots I attend has been greatly reduced. For this year’s issue, I’m shooting portraits of the cover story subjects for their stories. One thing I’ve learned at the Advocate, is I should find the room with the smartest person in it and listening to her is worth it. The room happened to be our photo studio this month.

sincerely,

P.S. I’m told that I am supposed to include something about why you should donate to support hyperlocal journalism. Please do! We have potholes, libraries, preservation, history, art, music, education, so much zoning and of course, interesting neighbors to write about.

THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE MOON

There’s a version of Tiffany Moon that is sharing Louboutin’s So Kates in a variety of colors from her locked closet to over 1.7 million TikTok followers and nearly 1 million Instagram followers. A one-season cast member of The Real Housewives of Dalla s. But there’s also a businesswoman who owns Aromasthesia Candle Company and Three Moons Wine. And there’s the motivational speaker who runs LeadHer summits and retreats, a series of experiences focused on empowering and grounding women. She spent last year on the road promoting her part-memoir, part self-help book Joy Prescriptions , published in 2025.

The version of herself she’s been the longest, however, has been Dr. Moon, an anesthesiologist who has spent the better part of the last two decades running clinical trials, publishing over 50 original manuscripts, reviews, and book chapters, and teaching as an associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Moon, who was born in a small town outside of Beijing, made a pit stop in New York before her family moved to Flower Mound in the 1990s. At 15 years old, she was accepted to the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a University of North Texas program, before completing her Bachelor of Science in neurobiology at Cornell University. A sour experience with a neurosurgeon pivoted her focus to anesthesiology. After completing an M.D. from UT Southwestern Medical Center at 23 years old and a residency at the University of California, San Francisco, she landed back in Dallas.

When she was a fourth year-medical student, she met her husband Daniel Moon at the now-closed Knox-Henderson bar Suite. Daniel is the vice president and general counsel of the family-owned Sam Moon Group, which has a portfolio that includes a slew of luxury hotels, shopping centers and wholesale accessories outpost, Sam Moon Trading Company. Tiffany’s favorite version of herself might be the one she lives in the quiet of her Preston Hollow home, where she lives with Daniel, their twin 11-year-old girls, twin college-aged stepchildren and a Belgian Malinois. That Tiffany’s favorite way to spend her day in Dallas is matcha, yoga, park and cooking dinner with her family.

She’s in a phase of her life where she’s winding down her clinical research for the

time being and ramping up her summits and retreats. There’s a family-focused vacationesque retreat, The LeadHer Legacy Family Retreat, in the works for this fall. And she’s concentrating on educating herself on preventive and longevity medicine. After all, she’s only 41.

WHY DID YOU WRITE YOUR BOOK?

I would be asked all the time about my childhood and how those experiences have shaped me into who I am today. Or people would be like, ‘How did you graduate from college at 19 and medical school at 23?’ So then I would have to explain. And then I struggled with infertility, and I had a miscarriage before I got pregnant with my twins, and sometimes people would want to talk about that, but I can’t have this conversation with every person who wants to talk about different elements of my life. The reason it’s called Joy Prescriptions is that at the end of each chapter, there’s a little box with a joy prescription that I write for the reader to live their lives with more joy. But I wrote the book really for the younger version of me. I wish that I had had this book when I was in my 20s and struggling with my identity and my self-worth and my infertility. I didn’t really have someone who would tell me wise things and give me the impression that, it’s going to be OK, it’s all going to work out. I lived in this constant fear and anxiety because I equated my self-worth with achievement, and if I didn’t have that, then who would I be?

WHAT’S THE JOY PRESCRIPTION YOU WRITE YOURSELF?

Well, it’s funny, because you know, I wrote this whole Joy Prescriptions book, and then sometimes I have to remind myself to follow my own prescriptions. I always say, comparison is the thief of joy. I look at other entrepreneurs that just crossed like $5 million, $10 million and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so amazing.’ But I have to remind myself that they’re completely different than me. Also, they started their businesses many more years before me, and also, it’s not a competition, you know?

YOU’VE DONE A LOT OF RESEARCH WORK. TELL

ME ABOUT THE PROJECT YOU’RE MOST PROUD OF. I’ve always been interested in performing

clinical research, because as doctors we can’t really advance the practice of medicine and continue to offer novel treatments and techniques for our patients if someone’s not doing research to see which method is better. I’ve probably been the principal investigator on a dozen clinical trials, so that’s a really proud achievement of mine, because I feel like not only am I practicing medicine and taking care of patients, but I’m also doing research to see if what we’re doing is good, or if there’s better techniques, better drugs.

I do a lot of research with patients with obesity, because that’s a chronic problem that we have in our society, and the airway management of patients with obesity and the drug dosing of the medications that we give is different for obese patients versus non-obese patients. I’ve done research with medications that we use to paralyze patients for surgery, because even though patients are asleep under anesthesia, their body can still move, and generally the surgeons don’t like it when the patients move when they’re trying to do surgery. So we have to give drugs to paralyze patients under general anesthesia, and some drugs are better than others. And then at the end of surgery, when we want the patients to wake up and start breathing on their own again, we have to reverse the paralysis, and there are different drugs that we can use to reverse the paralysis, and some are better or faster than others. It also gives me the opportunity to work with more medical students and residents, because I have them on my research team, and so they get more exposure to anesthesia, they can maybe decide if they want to pursue it for their own career choice.

SO, HOW’D YOU END UP ON THE REAL HOUSEWIVES ?

My friend D’Andra was on it, and she had been asking me to join her because she wanted someone who she could talk to and riff with on the show, and so she had asked me to be on the show, 2018 I think. And in 2019 right around Christmas time, she asked me again, and then in 2020, I had some Zoom meetings with casting agents. One thing led to another, and I didn’t even think that they were going to pick me. So, I was just as surprised as anyone else when they chose me to be on the show. But it was one of those things that you get offered and it’s hard to say no to, and also it was only 12 weeks of filming, and I just thought to

myself, ‘I graduated with my M.D. when I was 23, I had twins, I went back to work six weeks after having twins full time, plus taking overnight calls and running clinical trials. Surely, I can hang out with a bunch of ill-behaved housewives for 12 weeks. It can’t be that hard, you know.’ I did it, and I’m glad that I did it, but it was very clear to me after doing it for a season that wasn’t something I wanted to continue doing.

HOW DID THAT EXPERIENCE IMPACT YOUR WORK AS AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST AND A CLINICAL RESEARCHER?

Quite frankly, it didn’t. I was working full-time while I was filming Housewives; I did not miss a day of work. I did not call in sick. I did not ask to leave early. I knew that I was under a microscope because I agreed to be on the show, so I was extra diligent about dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s at work. My first surgery is at 7:30 a.m. so I usually get to the hospital 6:45 to 7 a.m. So work all day. If I had to film that night, I would take a shower, put some makeup on, get dressed, film, and then I told the producers that I had a hard out at 10 p.m. They were totally cool with it. My cast mates weren’t as cool with it.

WHEN SOMEONE SIGNS UP FOR A LEADHER RETREAT, WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO WALK AWAY WITH?

I want them to walk away with the confidence that they have the resources to make whatever decision they want in their life. So many women who come to me, and they say that they feel stuck, stuck in a job or a career they don’t like, stuck in a marriage they don’t like, and I want them to feel empowered that they can make changes in their life. They’re like, ‘No, no, I can’t possibly. I don’t have any other skills, or who else would want me, I’m 40 something with two kids and overweight, like what man would want me?’ And we just have so many of these negative thoughts in our heads, so many limiting beliefs. There’s so much life ahead of us. The average life expectancy is over 80 years old. And so what, you’re just gonna wither away for the next 35 years if you’re 45 years old? I don’t think so.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

I am getting into being a longevity doctor, which, depending on who you ask, sometimes people are like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ or they think it’s like not real medicine. But the way we practice medicine here in the United States is very reactive. We wait for people to get diabetes, we wait for people to get cancer, to be obese, and have all these problems, but we don’t invest the time and energy and education and resources to keep people healthy. Lots of education about nutrition, functional movement, biohacking,

we all know, that’s not how it is. I wish I had enjoyed the journey a little bit more instead of being so focused on the finish line, and enjoying a lot of opportunities that came to me. I didn’t take any fun classes, and then I wanted to backpack through Europe for a summer or study abroad, but my dad said no. We didn’t really have the money for it, and it would have delayed my graduation by a semester. In many ways now in my adult life I’m trying to make up for experiences.

like supplements, red light, and sauna — I love all that stuff. I’m hoping that in the future I can use my medical expertise and my scientific background running these clinical trials to help people stay healthy and have a longer lifespan and be functional into their 80s.

ANY REGRETS IN LIFE?

The only thing is I rushed through college and medical school because I thought that when I finished, there was going to be this pot of gold at the finish line or something, and as

YOU SAID YOU WISH YOU HAD SLOWED DOWN. DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE A SLOWED DOWN PACE?

The clinical trials are at their tail end, I’m not writing or launching a new book, and I’m not doing a 200-person summit, only the retreat, which is much smaller. Even though it looks like the pace that I’m going right now is still fast, it’s slower than what it was last year. It’s at least a step in the right direction, because last year felt like 100 mph, like illegally fast down the tollway, and this year feels more like 60.

WHAT’S YOUR IDEAL SPEED?

Maybe we could aim next year for like a cool 40 mph, like have some time to go to the gym and relax and watch a TV show. People always talk about TV shows, and I have no idea what they’re talking about. But, I like doing all the things I’m doing right now. Which thing am I not going to do anymore?

WHEN SOMEONE READS THIS ARTICLE, WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO THINK?

One person sees me on social media and they think that I’m a great role model and hard working and smart and funny. And another person sees the exact same content but thinks that I’m full of myself and spend money on frivolous things and am annoying, right? And it’s the same content, but two different interpretations. I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m doing the best I can, and I know who I am and what my intentions are.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. Correction/Clarification: This story has been updated from the original version to correct some factual errors, which appeared in the July print issue.

Confidence-building

TINA & TERRY

Handed-selected by Terry Costa herself, Tina Loyd is keeping the Dallas destination new 20 years later

The start of Tina Loyd’s story sounds awfully familiar. A small-town girl who grew up on a small beef farm in a small Missouri town — population less than 1,000 — pays for college by waitressing and modeling. Loyd, who studied communications with a minor in theater at Missouri State University, modeled in her post-undergrad life along with other jobs to make ends meet and pay for graduate school. She had thought she wanted to be an attorney.

“I was paying my way through school, working 40 hours a week and going to school full time was really, really hard. I needed money, quite frankly. And so I basically started working at that point, and just kind of led from one opportunity to the next,” she says. “I was kind of at a loss on what to do at that point, because I hadn’t really found anything that I truly enjoyed, but I found Precious Formals.”

And that’s where the familiarity ends.

At a model fitting at Precious Formals when she was 25 years old, the showroom was packed and busy. Loyd started selling dresses to vendors. And then, next thing she knew, she was traveling to New York, Chicago, Atlanta and across California.

She met Terry Costa, whose eponymous store, founded in 1986, is a destination for occasion attire, when she was busy catching flights and selling formal dresses on the wholesale side.

“It’s sort of strange,” Loyd says. “I remember

the first time that I met her, she was asking me questions about a dress, and then we just kind of hit it off from there.”

In the 2000s, it came to a point where Loyd was trying to decide if she wanted to head to Los Angeles to try her hand in the entertainment industry (the minor in theater) or if she wanted to come to Dallas and join Costa.

“A neat thing about Terry Costa is that it incorporates a little bit of everything that I’ve ever done in my life,” she says. “Even when I was a little kid, my mom decorated wedding cakes on the side and I would go and be the little girl, and I’d line up all the little forks and help her set up for the wedding.”

Loyd competed in pageants for seven years, mostly in Miss America, placing third in the state. And so for seven years she worked alongside Costa, selling bridal and pageant dresses along with homecoming and prom dresses.

But Terry asked Tina to join her in Dallas for a reason.

“Terry, who was one of my favorite clients, and she said, ‘You know, have you ever thought about owning your own business?’” Loyd says.

By 2007, Loyd bought out Costa and became the sole owner. The team has stayed the same for the most part over the years. Costa stuck around for a bit as a mentor.

“Terry taught me a lot; she taught me a lot about life,” she says. “She’d taught me about having the courage to keep moving forward. The business has been through a lot. Obviously,

everyone has had a pandemic, we had a fire at one point, my house had been hit by a tornado, so I would say that we’re very resilient.”

Terry Costa, whose primary clients are from outside the city, turns over its inventory at least five times a year, approximately 10,000 dresses. Seventy percent of the business is prom and homecoming, 13% of it is bridal, depending on the day, 12% in the evening wear category, and then the rest is accessories and couture.

The most popular designer in the prom category is Sherri Hill, along with Portia and Scarlett, and Ashley Lauren. Loyd just launched their in-house Terry Costa Exclusive Collection. The North Dallas store, which already has a significant footprint, expanded (in the space where the restaurant fire occurred), allowing for a larger bridal section.

The offices are simple. Where the administrative team sits is an elevated alcove tucked in behind dresses. Loyd sits in a corner, where she uses a fold-up table as her desk. She still spends a lot of her time on the floor.

“I enjoy watching the client when they come alive, especially with the prom and homecoming,” she says. “The young girls, when they get dressed up, and they just look so beautiful, and you see the look on their mom. Their mom didn’t even realize they grew up that much, and she’s like, ‘Oh, wow, she’s becoming a young lady, you know?’ And you can just see the joy beaming off their faces.”

BUON CIBO, BUON VINO, BUONI AMICI

Trattoria Bugatti brings back a neighborhood staple in a new concept

Lasagna “Rotta” ($25) is an exercise in deconstruction. Unlike traditional lasagna that comes in neat rectangles, this dish has all the ingredients — meatballs, arrabiatta or tomato sauce, ricotta, pecorino and broken sheet noodle — in a looser formation.

Guests stepping inside Trattoria Bugatti are greeted by green walls, dark wood finishes and tan leather seats that create a dining room designed to feel both polished and familiar. Vintage artwork hangs throughout the space, conversations drift between tables and servers weave through the restaurant carrying bowls of handmade pasta and wood-fired pizzas fresh from the kitchen. The atmosphere is lively without feeling rushed, inviting guests to gather.

The scene is a twist from the formal image many longtime Dallas diners associate with the Bugatti name.

For more than four decades, Bugatti Ristorante built a reputation for classic Italian dining, white tablecloth service and family hospitality. After relocating from its longtime home near Bachman Lake to Farmers Branch, the restaurant left behind a neighborhood where generations of diners had celebrated birthdays, anniversaries and weeknight dinners.

Trattoria Bugatti opened April 20 in the Shops at Bluffview through a partnership between the Bugatti family and the Odeh Restaurant Group.

“We really wanted to come back with something that felt more modern, more neighborhood and more casual,” says Ashley Odeh, president of the Odeh Restaurant Group. “We still wanted to deliver the hospitality that Bugatti was so popular for, but in an environment that feels more approachable.”

The partnership itself grew from a relationship years in the making.

Bassam Odeh, founder of the Odeh Restaurant Group, first met Michael and Zee Bugatti through their restaurant operations at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, where both families operate businesses. While the Bugatti family had relocated its flagship restaurant to Farmers Branch, conversations continued about someday bringing the Bugatti name back to the neighborhood.

When a landlord approached the Bugatti family about returning to the Bluffview area, the two families saw an opportunity to do more than simply reopen an old favorite.

“We didn’t want to open the restaurant again there,” Ashley says. “We wanted to come back in with something that felt more modern.”

That decision shaped nearly every aspect of Trattoria Bugatti, from its design and service style to its menu and operating hours.

For the Odeh family, creating that kind of environment reflects a philosophy that has guided its business for decades.

After immigrating to the United States, Bassam began working at Jack in the Box before saving enough money to purchase his first restaurant. Over the years, the family expanded into airport locations and multiple restaurant concepts.

Ashley said today’s diners expect more than a memorable meal.

“They want the whole package,” she says. “They want a beautiful restaurant. They want good service. They want good food.”

“I wanted it to feel lived in,” Ashley says. “I wanted it to feel approachable.”

To soften the sound of a busy dining room, Ashley selected commercial flooring designed to absorb noise and incorporated cork along portions of the bar and accent walls. She partnered with local curator, Kaitlyn Coffee of Harris Vintage, to source artwork that would make the restaurant feel collected over time instead of too carefully staged.

“I didn’t want it to feel too perfect,” she says. “I wanted it to feel familiar.”

Ashley believes that feeling is what defines a true neighborhood restaurant.

“I wanted people to feel like they could come after church or after a soccer game,” Ashley says. “However your

day brought you here, you’re welcome.” That philosophy also influenced the restaurant’s operating hours, giving neighbors multiple opportunities to make the restaurant part of their weekly routines.

A private dining room further expands that vision. Although currently used as overflow seating during busy dinner services, the space is already hosting private events and celebrations, another way the owners hope to strengthen their relationship with the surrounding community.

While the Bugatti and Odeh families had established the restaurant’s vision of creating a casual neighborhood gathering place, they still needed someone who could bring authenticity

to the menu without losing sight of that welcoming atmosphere.

They found that person in Chef Erin Willis.

The Bugatti family had known Willis for years. Long before she joined the project, she and her family were regular guests at the original Bugatti Ristorante.

Before joining the restaurant, she owned RM 12:20 Bistro in Lake Highlands and was nominated for a James Beard Award. She later founded EatMoreDFW, a catering and consulting company that allowed her to continue developing menus and mentoring restaurant teams.

Yet the foundation for Trattoria Bugatti’s menu had been built long before either business existed.

More than 30 years ago, Willis traveled to Italy with a group of friends. Instead, she found herself staying behind to spend six weeks shadowing an Italian chef, traveling throughout Florence, Tuscany, Rome and Cinque Terre while learning techniques that differed dramatically from the American Italian food she had grown up with.

During those weeks, Willis filled notebooks with recipes, cooking techniques and observations about regional Italian cuisine. She watched chefs prepare meals with only a handful of ingredients, allowing fresh vegetables, handmade pasta and carefully selected cheeses to become the focus of each dish instead of masking flavors beneath

heavy sauces. The experience transformed the way she thought about cooking.

“Everything there is organic without having an organic sticker,” Willis says.

Those journals were tucked away for years as Willis built her career, opened restaurants and developed new concepts of her own.

When she accepted the opportunity to lead Trattoria Bugatti’s kitchen, she returned to those notebooks for the first time in decades.

The result is a menu built around simplicity, allowing a handful of fresh ingredients to shine through.

“Everything on our menu is not something you’re going to get at your traditional American Italian restaurant,” she says.

One of the clearest examples is the restaurant’s lasagna.

Instead of layering wide sheets of pasta into the towering casserole many Americans expect, Willis prepares a Northern Italian-style “broken” lasagna ($25). Pieces of fresh pasta are folded throughout the dish and finished with meatballs and house-made ricotta, creating a lighter presentation that allows each ingredient to stand on its own.

The restaurant’s fettuccine alfredo ($18) is another dish that surprises people. Willis prepares the dish using the traditional combination of butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano and pasta water.

“I think the great thing about our alfredo is you can eat the whole bowl and you don’t feel heavy,” she says. “It’s really delicious.”

Even familiar dishes continue to surprise guests. Shrimp scampi ($28) arrives with handmade sacchetti, small ricotta-filled pasta purses rather than strands of pasta, while the restaurant’s limoncello tiramisu ($12) takes inspiration from the pudding-like desserts.

For Willis, introducing diners to these dishes is just as rewarding as preparing them.

“I love when people look at the menu and say they’ve never heard of testaroli or sacchetti,” she says. “It’s fun to expand people’s horizons.”

Fresh pasta is supplied by Fresh Pasta Delights, while Lubbies Bagels prepares the restaurant’s focaccia and sourdough pizza dough. Desserts are complemented by gelato from Botolino Gelato, and the beverage menu mirrors the menu with a wine list focused on Italian producers.

The beverages include classic Italian cocktails and liqueurs with an aperol spritz ($17), sbagliato ($16) and espresso martini ($17). The wine list features many Italian wines, and Willis collaborated with Italian wine specialist Leo Pisani and Derek Rogers of Serendipity Wines.

Willis describes Trattoria Bugatti as a teaching kitchen, where many members of her staff are learning Italian cooking techniques for the first time. Willis aims to mentor younger cooks, encouraging them to master recipes while gradually taking ownership of the restaurant’s standards.

She says that dedication to mentoring employees was one of the qualities that convinced the ownership group Willis was the right chef for the restaurant.

“When she talks about her team, you can tell she really cares about every single person,” Ashley says. “She treats them like extensions of her own family.”

Hospitality, Ashley says, isn’t limited to the guests seated in the dining room. It also includes creating opportunities for employees to grow, supporting neighboring businesses and building lasting relationships within the community.

For the Bugatti and Odeh families, Trattoria Bugatti represents more than the return of a familiar name to the Bluffview neighborhood.

“We wanted the whole package,” Ashley says. “Beautiful food, beautiful service and a beautiful restaurant, but one that still feels like it’s part of the neighborhood.”

Trattoria Bugatti, trattoriabugatti.com, 214. 217.3889, 3850 W. Northwest Highway

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here comes sally

Meet your District 13 Park Board Member

from a well-used two-pocket green folder, Sally Pretorius pulls out an annotated map of District 13. On it, she’s marked where each park and recreation center is located. Her plan is to visit each one, as one of the newest members of the Park and Recreation Board.

That particular day she had spent the morning at a senior center where 30 women were participating in a workout class before having lunch together.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that the City does a ton of community building,” she says. “The best way to keep them going is to have people going to them.”

She’s San Antonio born and raised, attended St. Mary University, before heading to Southern Methodist University for law school.

“I have a special needs brother, and my mom had to fight for more child support for my dad to send my brother to a special school,” she says. “I remember she had a court on a day when we were off of school. So she’d have to take off from work, and then I just remember sitting there in the hallway, and she went and did it all by herself. She couldn’t afford an attorney and I remember her coming out feeling really defeated. And after that I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna help people like her.’”

After getting her J.D. with a focus on family law, she had a brief stint in Austin where she met her husband who was her neighbor in an apartment complex. When they came back to Dallas in 2014, Pretorius landed at KoonsFuller, where she became a shareholder.

A dozen or more publications, board certification, Dallas County Advocacy Center’s Chair of the Board, The Family Place’s Partners Card cochair, President of the Texas Young Lawyers Association and State Bar of Texas Board of Directors director, adjunct professor at SMU, a 60-file caseload and a six-year-old daughter.

“I am too busy, is something a lot of people always say,” Pretorius says. “I think it’s finding efficiencies where you can.”

She prefers pen and paper to keep track of her efficiencies. Hence,

a well-used two-pocket green folder with District 13’s park map.

WHY’D YOU JOIN THE PARK BOARD?

When we lived in Austin, we lived by the lake. And then we came here, I was like, ‘Hey, we got to be somewhere near trail.’ So we moved down by the Katy Trail, and then when we decided we had to be grown-ups and buy a real house and go somewhere we could afford. Northaven Trail had just gotten going, and it wasn’t even finished yet over there by us. So, I reached out to them. I was like, “Hey, if you guys need like volunteers, like trail captains on the side, I’m happy to help. And they’re like, “Actually, we need board members.” And then I phased off of that when I started the luncheon for Junior League. I kind of just took a break. And then when council member Willis called me up and said, ‘We have a park board spot, would you be interested? I was like, ‘Yes.’ I’ve been doing it five months and. It is eye opening.

WHY WOULD YOU SAY THE FRIENDS OF THE DIFFERENT PARKS ARE IMPORTANT?

What they do is they create a unified voice for the community, and it gives an easy way to advocate for what they want, so they can partner with different people that maybe aren’t available to the City or if a local business would rather partner with a friends group. Joining a friends group feels so much better than saying ‘I’m going to call up my board chair.’ It’s just an easy way to keep your hands in the community, I think.

HOW DO YOU THINK DALLAS RESIDENTS CAN BETTER UTILIZE THESE TYPES OF RESOURCES?

Go, I think just go. Go see your local pools. I would be interested to see how many people know about if there was a camp going on at Marcus Recreation Center and to help with childcare during the day. Go use the after-school programs, the pools, the gymnastics programs. I know when I grew up, my mom made me do

Folklorico dancing, because it’s big in our family, and the best place that I found it was Bachman Lake, like they had it at the community center. I think a lot of people don’t realize that the City does a ton of community building. The best way to keep them going is to have people going to them.

HOW DO YOU THINK THE CITY COULD DO A BETTER JOB OF LETTING PEOPLE KNOW?

That’s a good question. And I’m going to figure it out. I’m five months in. I’m going to work with them on it. Part of it’s my job, right? I need to go out there and figure out how to get some of the information out and work with my council members and other district reps to figure out what that is.

DO YOU THINK YOUR CHILDHOOD INFLUENCED BEING ON THE PARK BOARD, BECAUSE NOW YOU’RE SPENDING YOUR SUMMER VISITING RECS?

I mean, probably. And you know, my mom never dropped us off there like all day, but we definitely would do the half-day camps. I remember my brother going and playing basketball there, and I remember I was a lifeguard at our community pool for my sophomore year. Maybe you’re right. Now I’m going to go home and think about that, and maybe this is full circle?

IS YOUR LIFE THE WAY YOU WOULD HAVE IMAGINED IT?

What’s funny is I don’t have any recollection of what I intended my life to be. If that’s weird. There was the top 10 things I wanted to accomplish. Bbe an attorney, be board certified, be president of Texas Young Lawyers. I created it when I first graduated law school. Run a marathon. There’s two that haven’t been checked, but other than that, I did not really have a vision.

DO YOU SEE YOURSELF LEAVING LAW TO GO INTO CITY POLITICS?

This will probably be the extent

of it. I’m really happy here. I don’t think that’ll be on my bingo card at all.

HAVE YOU FILLED YOUR BINGO CARD?

It’s just kind of fun to see what comes up right now. I didn’t see the parks on there. ‘Hey, let me think about it, see if it aligns with what I’m passionate about,’ and when I started thinking, I was like, ‘Man, it really kind of does.’ I was like, ‘I loved Northhaven Trail, I love parks.’ These parks make such a big difference. It’s a small thing that I think people don’t recognize, but it’s something that we’ve recognized as a value for so long, right? Obviously, land was allocated to parks, and like it’s been in the budget, like New York has Central Park, Romans had parks, everybody had parks. Just a core value, I think, for most people. We just kind of maybe push it to the side sometimes.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

It’s a Mahjong world, & we’re just living in it

Story by SYRA CASTILLO | Photography by AMY ROBINSON

Ashley Gomez & Linda Casey are using mahjong to create connection, community and lifelong friendships across Dallas

BRIGHT PINKS, BOLD GREENS AND VIBRANT BLUES color

Ashley

Gomez and Linda Casey’s mahjong tiles as players gather for an afternoon of friendship and conversation.

For Moss Haven and Preston Hollow residents Gomez and Casey, founders of the Dallas Mahj Club, the game has become much more than a simple pastime. What began as a small interest group among women in the Lake Highlands Women’s League has since evolved into a thriving club with 180 members and a waitlist of more than 400.

Maybe it was timing or maybe it was Crazy Rich Asians , but mahjong was suddenly everywhere. In the years following the 2018 film’s release, interest in the centuries-old game surged across the country, fueled by social media, cute tile designs and a growing desire for face-to-face connection.

In northern Dallas, Gomez and Casey found an opportunity to grow that interest into community.

“People were trying to play at each other’s homes, but it was too unorganized,” Casey says. “And we just said, ‘Hey, there is a community out there,’ and we decided to go in together.”

For both women, mahjong arrived during a period of transition. Casey, a former Richardson ISD executive director, found the game shortly after retirement, while Gomez turned to mahjong after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor.

“When I woke up from surgery, I got my phone and played one game of mahjong because I had memorized about 30 lines,” she explains.

The Dallas Mahj Club operates on a year-long membership model with annual

reapplication and dues. Applications open in October and notices of admission are sent out Jan. 1. Once members, players meet at the Royal Oaks Country Club for weekly games, as well as private homes and restaurants. The club also travels and hosts special events.

Recently, members gathered at the historic Clint Murchison estate — once connected to the founding of the Dallas Cowboys — and hosted an evening of mahjong.

Today, the club has taught more than 3,000 women and around 100 men. Casey attributes this growth to the club’s atmosphere that reminds her of the social culture of the 1950s, when dinner parties and gatherings were more frequent.

“It’s very social,” Casey says. “We’re a social club. We’re not a competitive, walkin-and-keep-your-score-type of group.”

The Dallas Mahj Club hosts private and group lessons. Beginner lessons can be reserved for $75.

Debbie Johnson, a member of the Dallas Mahj Club since its founding and one of Casey’s closest friends, began playing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What first started as a way to learn a new game became an enjoyable challenge that has brought me lasting friendships, plenty of laughter and endless opportunities to learn,” she says.

Gomez and Casey also helped establish the rules for “blanks,” a newer variation of mahjong that lacked standardized guidelines. Their rules are now documented and published nationally on the International Mahjong Card.

“About 90% of the club chooses to play with blanks, and some play all the ways,” Casey explains.

But beyond modernizing the game, the two stay busy with pickleball, needlepoint, sewing, reading and travel. Even outside mahjong, they say the game continues to shape much of their social lives.

“I don’t care if it’s with youngs. I don’t care if it’s with olds,” Gomez says. “I just want to play.”

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kat gamber

Hockaday School alumna thrives through education and advocacy

Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ

The clock was approaching 2 p.m. on April 22. Sitting across the City Hall horseshoe via Zoom was Kat Gamber and her students at White Rock Montessori. They had been on the call since 9 a.m., waiting their turn to speak about their concerns and request for the removal of the roofing manufacturer GAF and TAMKO factories from West and South Dallas.

Gamber, who currently works as the middle school lead at White Rock Montessori, is an Oak Cliff native, a Hockaday School alumna and vice president of the Bishop Arts Neighborhood Association. Through her position at the Montessori, she teaches across all content areas to seventh and eighth grade students.

When her students were learning biology and environmental systems, they started to look at water and air quality, which led them to learn about how that quality impacts Dallas, inspiring her students to speak to the city council.

“Dallas doesn’t have great air quality, and that’s a fact that we look at when we study history and that we

look at in science,” she says. “I think connection with the land is a really important part of our school’s program, like right now they’re going on camping trips all throughout the year. It wasn’t a specific topic, it was more like we were studying environmen talism and those systems, and learning about how you monitor air quality, water quality, and learning about how you could create change around that.”

Gamber earned her bachelor’s in education and psychology at Southern Methodist University. She says that her time in a competitive and high pressure education environment inspired her to earn her first master’s degree in counseling. She was considering opening a private practice when she learned about the Montessori philosophy of not only teaching academic subjects, but nurturing the emotional health and social skills of students.

“Creating peace is the work of education, and I feel like that’s what actually kept me in education was finding Montessori, and when I did that, I was like, ‘Oh, well, I want to go back and learn more about how I could integrate STEM into Montessori,’ which traditionally shies away from technology, I think a lot of times,” she says of earning her second master’s degree in STEM and Montessori education. “And so it’s been a really interesting balance because in so many ways we are very low tech in terms of writing or things like that, and then on the other hand, we really value technology when we’re about to utilize it in meaningful ways, in creative ways and in ways that help us advocate for change.”

Advocacy comes naturally to Gamber. She says that as a citizen, you have to be involved in your local community if you want to see a living environment you truly desire.

“If you see a problem, you want to solve it,” she says. “I was at Tyler and Eighth Street, and I just would be watching people run across the street, trying not to get hit by cars, trying to get to the coffee shop across the street, and I’m like, ‘What, this is crazy, where’s the urban development here? Where’s the planning for this?’ I was out there with my daughter, and I said, ‘Hey, let’s just make a petition,’ and we just stopped people, and I said, ‘Hey, did you want to cross the street?’ And I was like, ‘How did you feel when you’re crossing? You’re scared.’ I said, ‘Oh, do you think that there should be a stoplight or a crosswalk here?’ And everybody signed it.”

Combining her lived experiences and STEM education background, Gamber brings those lessons to her classroom to help encourage the next generation to advocate for the causes they care about, too.

“I hope that they feel empowered, that they continue. I want them to grow up and be participants,” she says. “As much as the government has a duty to serve the citizens, the citizens have a duty to be involved.”

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