McDavid adds new title to list: Board of Regents Chair

The list of titles that Texas Woman’s alumna Stacie Dieb McDavid has amassed over the course of her adult life is lengthy and impressive. A sampling of those titles includes horse cutter, real estate investor, CEO, track and field star, philanthropist and Cowgirl Hall of Fame member.

In February, she added another – chair and presiding officer of the Texas Woman’s University System Board of Regents.

Regents at their quarterly meeting selected McDavid to be their next board chair as part of that body’s biennial reorganization process.

It’s a title fitting for McDavid, a former track and field star was recruited to Texas Woman’s University as a javelin thrower who has since made a name for herself in spaces from the boardroom to the rodeo arena.

And there isn’t a business card big enough – not even in Texas – to fit all the titles the Denton native has assumed since graduating from the university with a bachelor’s degree in 1980.

“I like the flexibility, which allows me to wear different hats,” McDavid said.

She proved that riding horses and running businesses were possible at an early age. She became a businesswoman right out of college, operating a franchise of 32 fitness centers in Texas and Florida.

Currently the CEO of McDavid Companies, a real estate and investment company, McDavid also oversees an equine breeding, training and ranching operation. A longtime competitor in the National Cutting Horse Association and inductee into the association’s non-pro hall of fame, McDavid in 2016 was named the American Quarter Horse Association Amateur Cutting World Champion and was the Reserve World Champion in 2017.

In 2019, she was named to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, which celebrates women who exemplify courage, resilience and independence and who helped shape the American West.

It was that same year that Gov. Greg Abbott appointed McDavid to serve a six-year term on the board of regents. Before being selected to the chair the board, she served as the board’s vice chair and assistant presiding officer.

In 2021, she and her husband, David McDavid, established the Dieb-McDavid Scholarship Program at Texas Woman’s, which awarded scholarships to five Class of 2021 Denton High School graduates who demonstrated a commitment to women’s leadership. The scholarships helped cover costs for four years at the university. In 2022, the McDavids made a second gift to support five more scholarships to Denton High School graduates attending Texas Woman’s.

Additionally, Stacie McDavid has served on numerous boards, partnerships and charitable organizations, including the Fort Worth Zoo and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In 2011, Northwood University selected her as a Distinguished Woman honoree and in 2009 she received the Association of Fundraising Professional Award for Tarrant County.