Speakers

Renee Carlson lives in Richardson with her husband, Cory, and their three young children.  The many challenges and issues Renee has seen as a foster parent lead her to seek out ways to make a positive impact on foster care.  To that end, she serves as the president of Foster Friends, a nonprofit that provides for the material needs of local children in foster care.  Renee has previously served on the Collin County CPS Board and remains constantly engaged with that board as a volunteer.  Renee is also a board member of Building Future Families, a foster parent legislative advocacy group.  In recognition of her commitment to local foster care, Congressman Sam Johnson chose Renee as his 2018 Angels in Adoption honoree.

Renee holds law licenses in Texas and Pennsylvania, but is presently committed to full-time motherhood and volunteering. 

Renee is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and Temple University Beasley School of Law.

She is a Leadership Richardson graduate.  In her spare time, Renee enjoys taking braiding and Spanish lessons, but mostly stays at home while her husband works and attends law school part time.

 

Terri is an attorney and commercial real estate owner, who moved from Houston in August, 2002 with her young son, Austin.  She began working for a law firm, and pursuing volunteer opportunities, involving the city, county and at the state level.   

Some of her Community Involvement includes:

●Graduate of Leadership Frisco and elected Class President

●Graduate of Leadership Plano

●Appointed by the Texas Supreme Court to the Unauthorized Practice of Law

        Subcommittee in Dallas

            She has received many honors/awards

●Selected and currently serves on the Dallas Cowboys Club Networking and Business  

      Committee at the Star

●Named One of “21 Persons Leading Collin County into the 21st  Century”

●Received the “Chairman’s Award”—Frisco Chamber of Commerce

●Named by D Magazine— one of Top Nine Trust & Estate Attorneys in Plano

●Named the Frisco Club Rotarian of the Year in 2011 by this club!

                Finally, in 2010, she was appointed by then County Commissioner and current State Rep Matt Shaheen and re-appointed by Commissioner Susan Fletcher to the Collin County Child Protective Services Board, where she was elected President in 2015 and continues to serve in that role today.

When Terri is not working or volunteering, you will find her traveling all over to see her beloved Cowboys play football or with her son the “golf fanatic” playing courses around the U.S.  

She lives in Frisco, with an office in Plano and with two new offices opening soon in Rowlett and Rockwall!

Mark I. Piland is the Fire Chief for the City of Frisco, Texas, a CFAI Accredited Department and the fastest growing city in the U.S.

Previously, Chief Piland served as the Fire Chief for Volusia County Fire Services in Volusia County Florida and as a Shift Commander in Operations for the Virginia Beach Fire Department in Virginia Beach VA.

He also served 16 years on Virginia Task Force 2, a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team as Task Force Leader, East Coast Task Force Leader Representative, as well as Incident Support Team Leader for the Federal US&R system with deployments to the Pentagon during 911, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Chief Piland possess a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Hospital Management from Eastern Virginia Medical School, and a Bachelor of Psychology from Old Dominion University.

Chief Piland is a graduate of the National Fire Academy 's Executive Fire Officer Program, the Executive Leader Program at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security, and the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the Kennedy School at Harvard.

With over 20 years intra- and entrepreneurial experience, Wendi McGowan-Ellis is the Co-Founder and CEO of LifestyleFrisco.com, where she leads a team of digital, mobile, social, and content strategists and creators. 

Combining written content, audio podcasting, and video production, Lifestyle Frisco is the premier local media digital platform for What to DO, Where to GO, and Who to KNOW in Frisco, Texas, and we encourage you to read the company's "WHY" page. 

Wendi's experience includes:
* Consulting to Fortune 10 firms, medium companies, and over seventy-five small businesses
* Published author and sought-after speaker on digital and omni-channel strategy, branding, online marketing, content creation, digital multi-media, and mobile topics
* Ghost-writer for new women's leadership book hitting the shelves in Spring 2020