President and CEO, Communities Foundation of Texas
As President and Chief Executive Officer of Communities Foundation of Texas, Brent Christopher leads a talented staff as the foundation works to enhance the experience and impact of charitable giving.
Brent earned his law degree from The University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas, where he was a Robert S. Strauss Scholar and administrative editor of the Texas International Law Journal. He earned his master’s degree in political economy and political culture as a Rotary Foundation Scholar at the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, England, and his B.B.A. in public administration and economics from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
Prior to joining Communities Foundation of Texas, Brent served as Director of Development for the giving programs at Children’s Medical Center Dallas during the hospital’s successful $150 million wePromise Campaign. Before his post with Children’s, he served as General Counsel and Vice President for Advancement at Dallas Baptist University. Earlier in his professional career, Brent practiced law at Cowles & Thompson, P.C., in Dallas, where he specialized in legal malpractice defense and product liability defense.
Brent serves on the boards of directors for Safer Dallas Better Dallas and Passion for Children’s. He is chair of the Advisory Board of CF Insights, an initiative through the Community Foundations Leadership Team at the Council on Foundations and FSG to gather, analyze and share data with community foundations to improve their performance and sustainability. He also is a strategy committee member of the Alliance for Charitable Reform, which educates policymakers about philanthropy and the role it plays in communities.
Among his other activities, Brent serves locally on the President’s Advisory Council for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, where he also was an original member of the Brinker International Forum Board of Advisors. He is a member of the Crystal Charity Ball Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of Uplift Education, the Board of Advisors of Entrepreneurs for North Texas, the Advisory Council of the Center for Nonprofit Management, the Community Advisory Board of the Junior League of Dallas, the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development Executive Board at Southern Methodist University, the United Way Metropolitan Dallas Income Impact Council and the UNT Dallas 21st Century Commission. Brent is an active member of the Dallas Chapter of Young Presidents’ Organization and The Dallas Assembly, for which he served as president in 2010-11. He also is a former is a former trustee of The Foundation at Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
Brent and his children live in Dallas.
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ABOUT COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION OF TEXAS: As the largest community foundation in Texas and one of the largest in the nation, Communities Foundation of Texas works closely with families, companies and nonprofits. Together, they strengthen their community through a variety of charitable funds and strategic grantmaking initiatives. The foundation professionally manages nearly 900 charitable funds and has awarded over $1.1 billion in grants since its founding in 1953.