The 1911 Group | SMU Stories

Lacey Horn, BBA ’04, MSA ’05, is a globally recognized financial executive and entrepreneur whose career has focused on advancing the economic future of Indigenous peoples. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she is the Founder and CEO of Native Advisory, where she advises Tribal governments and companies seeking to work effectively with Indigenous communities.

Lacey previously served eight years as Treasurer of the Cherokee Nation, helping lead the financial strategy and operations of the largest Tribal government in the United States.

She serves in national governance roles including current board service with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, former Board Chair of the Native American Rights Fund, and former Chairperson of the U.S. Treasury Tribal Advisory Committee. She began her career as an auditor with KPMG in Chicago and as a Hunt Oil intern in Dallas. Lacey is a CPA and a private pilot. 

SMU recognized Lacey with its 2017 Emerging Leader Award, honoring the impact she was already making early in her career. More than two decades after graduation, she remains deeply connected to the Hilltop as a longtime donor and active member of the SMU community. Lacey loves to attend football games with her son Jack and husband Jerry.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Tiffany Jones, founder of Avenue 8 Cocktails and an SMU Cox School of Business MBA alumna.

Avenue 8 is a Dallas-based premium cocktail brand making organic, spirit-based ready-to-drink cocktails built on ingredient transparency, quality, and elevated design. The brand is 100% female founded, developed, and owned. Since entering retail in 2025, Avenue 8 has expanded across Texas, earned six industry awards including Best New RTD at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and picked up national recognition including coverage in Forbes.

Before launching Avenue 8, Tiffany spent more than two decades as founder and principal of a high-end residential interior design firm. Earlier in her career she worked in New York and Dallas across banking, fashion, cosmetics, and advertising, experiences that shaped how she approaches brand building today. She earned her undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin and her MBA from SMU Cox.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Shelly Sender, founding Head of School at The Compass School of Texas, to talk about 45 years in education and what it takes to build a school from scratch.

Shelly Sender is the founding Head of School at The Compass School of Texas, with more than 45 years in education. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Southern Methodist University and holds master's degrees from The University of Texas at Dallas and Grand Canyon University.

From 2007 to 2023, Shelly served as Early Childhood Education Director at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas. Guided by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, she led the school through its third cycle of NAEYC accreditation, supported the implementation of the International Baccalaureate program, and reinstated its kindergarten. She has also held leadership positions on local and national child-advocacy boards.

At Compass, Shelly is building a school grounded in five core values, Family, Community, Leadership, Purpose, and Resilience, that pairs academic rigor with outdoor education, nature-based learning, and purposeful exploration.

Her belief is that education should do more than prepare children for the future. It should help them discover who they are, understand how they can contribute, and build the character to lead lives of meaning.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Layne Tenenbaum (’21), founder and creative director of Dallas’s go-to floral studio, coffee, and matcha concept, Le Bloom.

An SMU Cox graduate with a background in marketing and digital content strategy, Layne drew inspiration from California farmers markets to bring a fresh, elevated flower-stand experience to Texas. What began on Mother’s Day weekend in 2023 with a signature custom blue flower cart on Knox Street quickly blossomed into high-profile brand installations, mobile coffee catering, and a permanent brick-and-mortar storefront.

Today, Layne leads creative direction and daily operations as Le Bloom continues to grow—blending modern floral design, curated beverages, and community-centered hospitality across Dallas–Fort Worth.

Tune in to hear her journey, key lessons in young entrepreneurship, and what’s next for the brand.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Michael Harris, Leon Simmons Endowed Dean of the Simmons School of Education and Human Development. Simmons offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs spanning education, sport management, applied physiology and health, counseling, educational leadership, liberal studies, and more.

As dean, he leads one of the nation’s top-ranked private schools of education, providing strategic leadership for the school’s academic programs, research enterprise, enrollment growth, and philanthropic initiatives. Harris also serves as SMU’s Faculty Athletics Representative, representing the University to the Atlantic Coast Conference and the NCAA.

A member of the SMU faculty since 2012, Harris has held numerous leadership roles across the University and has championed academic excellence, shared governance, strategic investment, and organizational capacity-building to advance institutional success.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Caroline Turnipseed, Founder of CWT Consulting Group, a boutique marketing agency that partners with retail and lifestyle brands to create strategic marketing initiatives that drive measurable growth.

Since launching the firm in 2020, Caroline has helped brands acquire new customers, strengthen customer loyalty, and increase sales through thoughtfully executed brand partnerships, influencer marketing, email campaigns, product launches, and experiential events.

CWT Consulting Group's past and present clients include Hunter Bell, MacKenzie-Childs, Tuckernuck, Addison Bay, Oliphant, Vineyard Vines, and Look Linen Co., among others. The agency is nationally recognized for developing creative, results-driven campaigns that blend strategic thinking with authentic brand storytelling.

Before founding CWT Consulting Group, Caroline held in-house marketing roles at Lilly Pulitzer, Victoria's Secret, and Julia Berolzheimer's Gal Meets Glam, where she gained extensive experience building and scaling consumer brands.

Caroline lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, with her husband, Mitchener, and their two children, Wright and Annie.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Mike Romo.

Mike is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Capital Raising and Investor Relations at ACORE Capital, where he oversees the firm's global investor relations and product development efforts. He brings more than 25 years of experience across business development, marketing and fundraising.Before joining ACORE, Mike spent nearly nine years as a Partner at Torchlight Investors, leading marketing for the firm. 

Earlier in his career, he worked at Hawkeye Partners — where he sat on both the Management and Investment Committees while heading new manager sourcing and marketing — and at Giuliani Partners.Mike holds a BBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with SMU alumnus Henry Bryan.

As the North Texas Commission's Director of State Advocacy, Henry serves as liaison to our Government Affairs Committee, oversees the NTC’s statewide policy planning, develops organizational strategy on statewide advocacy, and leads advocacy efforts during the Texas Legislative Session.

He has spent more than five years working in government relations with experience in multiple levels of government. Before joining the NTC team, he worked as a Government Relations Account Executive at a Dallas-based Public Affairs firm where he assisted his clients with their work in city, county, and state level public-private partnerships.

He also led research efforts on code compliance for multiple clients.Henry also spent two years working as a fundraiser and consultant on multiple federal and state level campaigns that included both incumbent and new candidates where he focused on fundraising, compliance, and campaign messaging.

He graduated from Southern Methodist University where he studied Political Communication and Advertising.

This week on SMU Stories, host Bora Laci sits down with Brooke Donelson (’18) to discuss her dynamic journey from the Hilltop to international consulting and global community service.

Brooke believes some of life’s best opportunities for growth come from stepping directly outside your comfort zone. Since graduating from SMU’s Cox School of Business, she has built a successful career in consulting, partnering with Fortune 500 clients to solve complex business challenges across diverse industries.

Driven by a long-term goal of working in a bilingual professional environment, Brooke recently spent time living in Spain to sharpen her Spanish language skills and broaden her global perspective. Outside of her corporate work, she is deeply passionate about social impact, having volunteered extensively with Dallas CASA and the Peace Corps—transformative experiences that continue to shape her philosophy on leadership, resilience, and human connection.

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Bruce Blackwood, Managing Partner of Woodson Company, a real estate investment firm focused on value-add multifamily acquisitions in the growing suburban markets of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Before founding Woodson Company, Bruce spent seven years at Greystar, the largest manager of apartments in the U.S., serving as Senior Director focused on capital formation and value-add investment strategies. He also brings experience from private equity roles at JLL Partners and The Carlyle Group in New York and Washington, DC.

A 2013 graduate of SMU's Dedman School of Law with a B.A. in History, Bruce is a proud Mustang who has taken the lessons from his time at SMU into a career built on strategic growth and community-focused investment. He and his wife Kimbrell, who also attended SMU, now call Charleston, SC home with their three children.

Tune in to hear how Bruce is shaping the future of real estate investment in the Southeast.

#SMUStories #SMUAlumni #RealEstate #MultifamilyInvesting #WoodsonCompany #Greystar #MustangsForLife