CDF Leadership & Staff

Barbara Best
Executive Director of CDF-Texas

 

Barbara Best is the Executive Director of the Children's Defense Fund-Texas, where she coordinates the CDF-Texas Advisory Board of high level community, business and philanthropic leaders, coordinates state-wide media and outreach drives and oversees CDF offices in Houston, Austin and the Rio Grande Valley along with a statewide network of regional coordinators. Most recently, she played a critical role in directing the statewide Insure Texas Kids Campaign, mobilizing regional coordinators in ten Texas communities to restore the Texas Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to 127,000 Texas children.

Ms. Best came to CDF after serving as a Jesuit volunteer to work with refugees and coordinate legislative affairs for the Houston Area Women's Center, a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter. Ms. Best founded and chaired the Houston Immigration Policy team, a 100 member coalition of private and public sector organizations. She is a committee member and board member for multiple immigration, women, and family issue organizations. She received her B.A. in History from Duke University.

Ms. Best, a British American Project Fellow and American Leadership Forum Fellow, was recently profiled as one of 20 international advocates, and the only American, by the World Health Organization as part of the "Voices from the Frontline" web series on international efforts to improve access to health care.

Recent Material

"CHIP Enrollment" (Video from Press Conference on Children's Health Coverage), Austin American Statesman, April 29, 2008