Jennifer Altabef Bio

Ms. Altabef is a civic volunteer who currently serves as the chair of Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts Executive Board and the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Theater Center. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of SMU and the vice chair of the Legal and Government Affairs Committee. Ms. Altabef currently serves on the boards of the NPR Foundation, AT&T Performing Arts Center, KERA (North Texas Public Broadcasting), The Arts Community Alliance (TACA), and the UTSW President’s Advisory Board.  She is also a co-chair of KERA’s capital campaign and a member of SMU’s Campaign Steering Committee.

She is a past chair of the Boards of Directors of KERA, the Dallas Zoological Society, the SMU Libraries Executive Board and The Thanks-Giving Foundation. Her past board service includes the Global Fund for Children and Big Thought. She served on the capital campaign committee and as co-chair of the Parent and Family Fund at Northwestern University.

She received The Arts Community Alliance Silver Cup for service to the arts. She is a recipient of Southern Methodist University’s Distinguished Alumni Award and, jointly with her husband, Texas Appleseed’s Good Apple Award, awarded to an individual or couple who contribute to the betterment of Texas through philanthropy, community service and leadership. Ms. Altabef is a member of Charter 100 in Dallas.

Ms. Altabef’s nonprofit leadership experience includes transitions from public to private management, building public/private partnerships and relationships with public officials, management departures and recruiting, financial and staff restructuring, crisis management and fundraising.

Before devoting herself full-time to civic and philanthropic involvement, Ms. Altabef practiced law in Dallas for 28 years.  She served as a law clerk for Senior United States District Judge Joe E. Estes, as a shareholder at Locke Purnell Rain Harrell, and a partner at Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal.  Ms. Altabef’s practice focused on representing employers in labor and employment counseling, compliance and litigation.  She was the head of the labor and employment law section at both of her law firms and was listed multiple times in “Best Lawyers in America,” Texas Monthly’s “Texas Super Lawyers,” and “D” Magazine’s “Best Lawyers in Dallas.” 

Ms. Altabef received her B.F.A. in Journalism, cum laude, from SMU in 1978 and her J.D. from SMU in 1981.  Her husband, Peter, is a technology executive. Both of their children are lawyers.