XL Fortunate 500
Politics and law stars
People who power the political and legal social scenes
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Dawnna Dukes considers it a victory if she can find time in her busy schedule to sleep.
Amber Novak
FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, a native Austinite, is active in supporting Huston-Tillotson University.
"Everything is planned around where I have to be," the veteran lawmaker says. "I look at the day before and the day after and then figure out how many hours I have to sleep."
State Rep. Dukes is most in demand as a speaker, especially during the first part of the year, when she frequently makes remarks at events celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, black history month and women's history month.
She once gave 33 keynotes speeches in 28 days.
"The end of March is when we usually say, 'Whew,' " she says, exhaling.
Huston-Tillotson University is a favorite cause. Her family's ties to the school date to 1887 when her paternal great-grandfather graduated from the historically black college. Her annual African-American Community Heritage Festival, a fundraiser for Borders Learning Center, Lisa's H.O.P.E. Chest, and the WH Passon Historical Society is held at the East Austin campus. Earlier this year, she and Time Warner Cable co-sponsored a concert featuring R&B artist Kem, which raised $25,000 in scholarship funds. And she's a fixture at the annual President's Masked Ball — "good turnout, good band, good cause" — each spring.
During the holiday season, she looks forward to the annual Ambassadors Ball at the Austin Renaissance Hotel, an event she co-hosts that typically attracts 600 to 800 people.
Dukes is also an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and The Links Inc., which hosts two more of her favorite soirées — the Town Lake chapter's Mardi Gras Madness and the Austin chapter's Harlem Nights Ball.
A native Austinite, Dukes' connections come in handy when she's on the social scene.
"I know so many people," she says. "It's a time when I can relax a little bit."
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