Dr. Miranda Bennett
President
Dr. Miranda Henry Bennett serves as Associate Dean for Collections at the University of South Carolina Libraries. Educated at Rice University (B.A.), University of Virginia (M.A. and Ph.D.), and Indiana University (M.L.S), she began her career at the University of Houston, where she worked from 2005 to 2017. The granddaughter of Manuel DeBusk’s second wife, Jean Henry DeBusk, Miranda worked with DECATS in Houston while in college and is honored to steward her grandmother’s legacy by serving on the DeBusk Foundation board. Miranda and her husband Micah are the proud and tired parents of three sons.
J. Michael (Mike) Tibbals
Vice President
Mike Tibbals was educated in Texas public schools and graduated from Baylor University with a Law degree. He is a partner in the law firm Snell, Wylie, Tibbals. Mike serves on the Board of Advisors of Baylor Law Alumni Association. Memberships include American and Texas Bank, Dallas Mortgage Bankers Association, Texas Association of Bank Council, College of State Bar of Texas and Texas Land Title Association. He has had various speaking engagements.
Keith Belcher
Treasurer/Secretary/Finance Chair
Mr. Belcher was educated in Missouri public schools and graduated from Southern Methodist University with degrees in Business Administration and Economics. Upon graduation in 1982 he entered the banking field with InterFirst Bank in Dallas and was assigned Manuel DeBusk as a client in 1985. Subsequently, during the Savings & Loan crisis, he moved into the resolution of highly distressed real estate debt with the Federal Asset Disposition Association. He later held numerous senior management positions with J.E. Robert Company over a 22-year career with a focus on the investment, management, and disposition of real estate assets and portfolios. Mr. Belcher joined the DeBusk Foundation Board in 1989 and has served the board in multiple positions, including Treasurer.
Dr. Janette Boazman
Grants Chair/Board Member
Dr. Janette Boazman serves as Associate Professor of Education at University of Dallas. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, and a Master of Science degree in Educational Psychology, specializing in gifted education for both degrees. Her research centers on the personal and psychological well-being of the gifted. Before joining the DeBusk Foundation Board of Directors, Dr. Boazman taught in both the Junior and Senior DECATS programs in Dallas. As well, she has held leadership positions in the National Association for Gifted Children and is the representative for gifted learners on the National Catholic Education Association’s Exceptional Learner Council.
John Barone
Liaison to Programs/Board Member
John Barone received his B.A. in Education from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, and his M.A. in Private School Administration from the University of San Francisco. He has extensive background in child and adolescent development, gifted education, teacher training and teaching students with neurological differences. John has served as a DECATS mentor and Program Director since 1994. He currently serves as the Director of The Learning Resource Center at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory. He is the author of A Place for All: Ministry for Youth with Special Needs and is co-author of The Adaptive Teacher: Faith-based Strategies to Reach and Teach Learners with Disabilities.
Rachel Wade Robertson, J.D.
Board Member
Rachel Robertson is an attorney in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and represents number Fortune 500 companies. She specializes in class actions, antitrust, employment and appellate matters. Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Ms. Robertson was a law clerk for the Honorable Sidney A. Fitzwater of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Ms. Robertson received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and her undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin. Before law school, Ms. Robertson taught in Houston as a Teach For America corps member. During her time with TFA, she was named a semi‐finalist for the Sue Lehmann Excellence in Teaching Award, and she was selected to train and mentor new TFA corps members at the summer institutes. Ms. Robertson is also a graduate of the DECATS program.
Dr. Todd Kettler
Board Member
Todd Kettler, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at Baylor University and an affiliated faculty of the Baylor Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. Dr. Kettler’s teaching and research focuses on gifted education and advanced academic learning designs. He has served on the Texas Commissioner of Education’s advisory council for gifted education since 2014 including several years in the role of chairperson for the council which focuses on policy and guideline development and implementation in Texas. He recently served as the Chairperson of the Conceptual Foundations Network of the National Association for Gifted Children, and he is currently co-editor of the Journal for Advanced Academics, an international research publication focusing on gifted and advanced academic education.