Angela Hale (via Facebook)
Equality Texas Interim Executive Director Samantha Smoot is stepping down at the end of the month, and Angela Hale will step in acting CEO until a permanent CEO can be chosen.
The LGBT lobby organization is in the middle of a national search for a new permanent CEO, and Smoot said her staying another month won’t get them closer to finding her replacement. Smoot stepped in just before the beginning of the legislative session when Chuck Smith stepped down.
Elizabeth Myers, chair of the board for the Equality Texas Foundation thanked Smoot for her “six months of exceptional service and leadership,” saying Smoot, “leaves the organization in a stronger position to advocate for full lived equality for all Texans.”
Holt Lackey, chair of the Equality Texas board, said Smoot “was instrumental to Equality Texas’s success and leadership throughout the 86th Legislature. This session saw the creation and rising influence of the LGBTQ caucus, significant legislative success both in defeating discriminatory bills and advancing bills to protect the LGBTQ community, and an increasing awareness by our state’s leadership that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is against Texans’ fundamental belief in equality. Sam’s leadership deserves significant credit for this progress.”
Both Myers and Lackey expressed their confidence in Hale’s ability to lead the organization forward as the search for a permanent CEO continues.
Myers said, “Angela’s years of dedication to the LGBTQ rights movement and to Equality Texas make her the perfect candidate to lead the organization through this transition.”
Lackey added, “We are honored to have Angela Hale serve as acting CEO. We know from her years of service with Equality Texas that she is a talented and formidable advocate for the LGBTQ community and equal rights for all Texans.”
Hale said she is “both proud and humbled” to step in as acting CEO, noting that “In more than 25 years working in Texas politics and media, I have repeatedly seen Equality Texas leading the fight for full lived equality throughout the state of Texas. It has been an honor to work with Equality Texas for the past five years, and I am excited to continue that work with Equality Texas in this new role.”
She added, “I join with the board in thanking Sam Smoot for her service through a grueling but ultimately promising legislative session.”
Hale is a Dallas native, a former Emmy Award-winning TV reporter and veteran journalist at CBS KTVT Channel 11 in Dallas Fort Worth. She led communications efforts for the legalization of gay marriage for the Akin Gump Law Firm and the Texas plaintiffs and has been leading lobby and communications strategy at Equality Texas since 2015.
She is the managing partner of Red Media Group, a strategic communications and public affairs company. She led communications and lobby strategy during the 2017 legislative session for Equality Texas, and the business coalition against LGBTQ discrimination defeated the bathroom bill twice. During the 2019 legislative session, she spearheaded Equality Texas communication and lobby efforts and lead the Texas Welcomes All Business Coalition that included Texas Competes, Texas Welcomes All, Tech Net and the North Texas Commission defeating dozens of discriminatory bills.
Hale often speaks and organizes business to advocate for diversity and inclusion as a 21st century business imperative. She has also served in executive leadership for Speaker of the House and for the Office of the Attorney General.
— David Taffet
