Linda Perryman Evans

President and CEO, The Meadows Foundation

Prior to assuming her current position, Linda was an active partner in the public relations firm of Stern, Nathan, & Perryman. Previously she served as Executive Director of the Dallas Welcoming Committee, the city’s non-partisan host committee for the 1984 Republican National Convention. A Graduate of University of Texas at Austin, Linda worked in Washington, DC from 1976 through 1983. She served on President Gerald Ford’s re-election campaign, was an assistant in the development office of the American Enterprise Institute, and worked for the late Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania as an assistant to the press secretary. From 1980 to 1983 she worked in the White House Office of Media Relations and Planning for President Ronald Reagan.

Linda currently serves on the Budget and Finance Committee of the Council on Foundations, and is past president of the Conference of Southwest Foundations. She is past chair of the Mid-America Foundations Task Force on Standards and Accountability, served on the Independent Sector’s Panel on the Nonprofit Sector to advise the Senate Finance Committee, and the Effectiveness and Accountability Task Force for the Forum of Regional Association of Grantmakers.

In 2008 Linda received the YWCA 100 Outstanding Women’s Award and the Equest Community Service Award. In 2007 she received the TACA Silver Cup Award for her support of the arts in Dallas and the St. Philip’s Unsung Hero Award for her support of the inner city school and community center. Other past honors include the Dallas Alumni Pi Beta Phi Carolyn Helman Lichtenberg Crest Award in 2004, the Leadership Dallas Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003, the Prism Award from the Greater Dallas Mental Health Association in 2002, and the Encomienda de la Orden de Isabel La Catholica, one of Spain’s highest honors, in 2002 for her work on behalf of enhancing relations between Spain and the United States.

Linda is a past member of the Council on Foundations Public Policy Task Force and their Legislation and Regulations Committee, served on the Council’s Advisory Committee on Family Succession, and chaired the organization’s 2003 conference host committee. She also has served on the boards of Grantmakers in Health and the Conference of Southwest Foundations, where she chaired the 2002 Conference Site Selection Committee and served as Program Chair of the 1999 conference.