Girls Rock! Bios 2017

Beth Van Duyne was honored to be elected Mayor of the City of Irving in 2011, having served as a city council representative from 2004-2010. Former Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, she established and chaired Irving’s Communications Committee and has done extensive coalition building among local, state and federal officials and community leaders throughout the country through her activities with the US Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, Texas Municipal League and North Central Texas Council of Governments.

Throughout her 25 year career, she has had the opportunity to work with small startup companies, mid-size private companies and Fortune 500 corporations like Verizon, American Airlines and SAP. She also founded and ran her own consulting business, working with executives to develop strategic business plans, negotiation strategies, grassroots coalition building and federal and state legislative policy strategies. A frequently interviewed official, Beth has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Fox News and ESPN.

Concurrent with her municipal responsibilities, Beth is a member of the US Conference of Mayors Advisory Board, Community Leaders of America Texas Chair, the NorthCentral Texas Council of Governments, past member of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Board and is a Hatton Sumners Foundation trustee. She also chairs the Economic Development Advisory Council and serves on the Executive Boards of both the North Texas Commission and the Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Urban Center Task Force.

Beth is a magna cum laude graduate of Cornell University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with studies in City and Regional Planning, Government and Law. She has two wonderful children, Katie and Pearce, who attend school in Irving. Beth is the recipient of the 2016 National Security Patriot Award, 2016 Alain Bellet Award,2016 Great Women of Texas Award, 2015 Community Bridge Award and the 2015 Defenderof Freedom Award.

Alisha Laventure began her journalism career at CBS Broadcasting Inc. in Manhattan, where she worked as a junior production assistant in affiliate relations. Alisha is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, where she double-majored in Broadcast Journalism and Romance Languages. Given her Haitian ethnicity and fluency in Haitian-Creole, she was able to help produce 60 Minutes', "The Lost Children of Haiti," following the 2010 earthquake. The piece won an Emmy for Best Report in a News Magazine. From her home state of New York, Alisha's next stop was WMBF-TV News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Alisha eventually returned to New York in 2011 as a general assignment multi-media journalist at News 12 The Bronx. Within a year, she was promoted to anchor/reporter for both News 12 The Bronx and News 12 Brooklyn. During that time, she won a NY Associated Press Award for her work on "Pieces of the Puzzle, ” a special on children with autism. In 2014, Alisha joined the network's flagship station, News 12 Long Island.