AT A GLANCE
Board Member
DFW International Airport
Alma Mater: Harvard University
Regina Montoya is a member of the board of directors of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and is a co-chair of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawling’s Task Force on Poverty. Montoya is currently working on a book about the importance of incorporating Latinos into the economic, political, and social fabric of America, and she is a frequent public speaker on a wide range of issues including healthcare, poverty, diversity, and children.
Montoya is a Harvard-trained attorney who has been nationally recognized as one of the top lawyers in the country, and she is a former award-winning television commentator. She was one of the first Latinas to earn partnership in a major corporate law firm in the United States. Recently, Montoya received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Minority Counsel Program of the State Bar of Texas. In addition, she was awarded the Latina Lawyer of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Women’s Advocacy Award from Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, the La Luz Achievement Award from the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association, and the Pioneer for Justice Award from the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Bar Foundation.
In 1993, Montoya served in the White House as an assistant to the President and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. In 1998, she was nominated by the President to serve as a U.S. Representative to the 53rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
From 2009 through 2014, Montoya served as the senior vice president of External Relations and general counsel at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, the seventh-largest pediatric health care provider in the nation. From 2005 to 2008, she was the chief executive officer of the New America Alliance, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the economic advancement of the American Latino community.
A leader in the nonprofit community, Montoya is a member of the Board of Directors of Girls Inc. (National Board), the Texas Book Festival, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), the ChildCareGroup, the Texas Business Hall of Fame, the Retina Foundation of the Southwest and the Dallas Friday Group, and she serves on the Texas Lyceum Advisory Council.
Montoya has received numerous awards for her corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit accomplishments. She has received the Harvard Alumni Association Award, the Service to Women and Girls Award from Play Like a Girl, the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Real Woman Award, and the Dallas Minority Business Leaders Award from the Dallas Business Journal. Montoya has been recognized by numerous publications for her achievements, including Hispanic Executive magazine, which featured her on the cover of its July/August/September 2014 edition; Hispanic Business magazine, which twice named her one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States; Hispanic Enterprise magazine, which named her one of the Top 20 Leading Latinas in Business; and the Dallas Business Journal, which named her to its list of Top 25 Industry Leaders.
Montoya earned her BA from Wellesley College, where she is a Trustee Emerita, and her JD from Harvard Law School. She also has served as vice president and elected director of the Harvard University Alumni Association.
