Cannon Flowers
Mr. Flowers is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, and has held that position since 2005. Prior to joining HRI he worked at a global Fortune 500 Company for 23 years as an International Finance Controller. He has applied a "for-profit" business model to a Care Based Organization (CBO), with management through performance metrics.
A graduate of the Harvard Executive Education Program in Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations at the JFK School of Government. Cannon serves on the boards of the Dallas Zoological Society, AIDS Interfaith Network, is a past trustee for the Immigration Equality National Board and is a lifetime member of the Texas Instruments Alumni Association.
Serena Simmons Connelly
Ms. Connelly is a social worker and Vice President of the Harold Simmons Foundation in Dallas, Texas. She has a passion for empowering marginalized segments of our community, and as such, co-founded the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas in 1999 to assist political asylum seekers, immigrant women who have experienced domestic violence, and human trafficking victims in the North Texas area. She has served on the boards of the Dallas Women's Foundation, the Dallas Zoological Society and the Foundation for the Education of Young Women.
Serena received her Bachelors Degree in Classical Studies at Brown University and her Masters in Social Work at UT Arlington. She was named the 2001 Social Worker of the Year by the Dallas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.