Leadership Arts Profiles
Business Council for the Arts (BCA) Leadership Arts Institute has trained business leaders to serve on arts boards and develop the skills to impact North Texas arts and culture.
Leadership Arts Institute Profiles
Every Leadership Arts Institute (LAI) alumnus has a unique story, but they share a commitment to strengthening the arts in North Texas.
The alumni featured here represent different graduating classes and career journeys, yet each has made an extraordinary impact on the North Texas arts community. In recognition of their leadership and service, all three have received a Business Council for the Arts Outstanding Leaders Arts Alumnus Obelisk Award at the BCA’s annual Obelisk Awards celebration recognizing businesses and business leaders making a difference in the arts in North Texas.
Their stories demonstrate the many ways LAI alumni strengthen the arts through nonprofit board leadership, arts philanthropy, advocacy, and the creation of innovative programs that expand access to arts and culture. While their journeys are distinct, they share a common commitment to using their leadership skills to make a lasting difference.
LAI empowers business leaders with the connections, knowledge, and hands-on experience to become champions for North Texas arts and culture.
Danny Tobey
Partner, DLA Piper
LAI Class of 2012
Danny Tobey is a partner at DLA Piper and global co-chair of its Americas AI and Data Analytics practice, ranked Band 1 nationally and cited by Chambers among the field’s leading practitioners. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard with a law degree from Yale and a medical degree from UT Southwestern, he is also a published novelist, the author of The God Game (St. Martin’s Press).
He joined the board of the AT&T Performing Arts Center in 2015 and chaired it from 2020 to 2024, guiding one of Dallas’s signature cultural institutions through the pandemic and a period of major capital improvements, and he serves on the board of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.
Danny came to LAI in 2012 already accomplished — a physician, a lawyer, and one of the country’s leading AI-law practitioners. LAI bridged that leadership into the arts: he joined the AT&T Performing Arts Center board in 2015 and chaired it from 2020 to 2024, carrying one of Dallas’s signature institutions through the pandemic and its capital improvements. In 2024, on the nomination of the ATTPAC’s president and CEO, BCA named him its Business Champion for the Arts.
Ahava Silkey-Jones
Vice Provost, Dallas College
LAI Class of 2023
Ahava Silkey-Jones is Vice Provost of the School of Creative Arts, Entertainment and Design at Dallas College, where she leads arts academics and programming for more than 22,000 students across seven campuses, twelve galleries, and seven performance halls. She is a licensed principal and superintendent with an Ed.M. in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Ahava began her career as an educator in Chicago, where in 2011 she co-founded the Professional Theatre and Dance Youth Academy, a nonprofit she still leads as board president. She later served two terms on the Minneapolis Arts Commission and she sits on the arts education council of Americans for the Arts.
Ahava arrived in Dallas an accomplished educator and nonprofit founder and she said found LAI within weeks. The program bridged her into the North Texas arts community she now helps lead at scale, and, in her words, it led not only to leadership but to “purpose, and my people.”
In 2025, BCA named her its Outstanding Leadership Arts Alumnus.
Purvi Patel Albers
Partner, Haynes Boone
LAI Class of 2008
Purvi Patel Albers is a partner at Haynes Boone, where she also serves on the firm’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors — helping govern a national law firm while building one of its most recognized trademark and brand-protection practices. A graduate of Emory University, she counsels clients on trademark, advertising, and intellectual property matters, sits as a WIPO arbitrator for international domain-name disputes, and has been recognized by Chambers USA, World Trademark Review, and Super Lawyers.
She has carried that governance experience into the arts, serving as a National Trustee of the National Symphony Orchestra and on the boards of TACA (The Arts Community Alliance) and the Dallas Theater Center.
Purvi arrived at LAI in 2008 already leading as a partner on her way to her firm’s Executive Committee. The program bridged that governance into the arts, where she now brings a board member’s judgment to the National Symphony Orchestra, TACA, and the Dallas Theater Center.
In 2024, the Business Council for the Arts named her its Outstanding Leadership Arts Alumnus for her contribution across these prominent non-profits
Meet Last Year’s LAI Cohort
The LAI Class of 2026 features 55 distinguished leaders representing a diverse range of industries, including finance, law, technology, healthcare, architecture, education, real estate, the nonprofit sector, and the creative economy.
Leadership Arts Institute Sponsors
Presenting Sponsor
Media Sponsor
Recognizing Companies Committed to Arts Leadership by Participating in LAI
