April Allen is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, where she leads Halperin Park — a deck park built over Interstate 35E in Oak Cliff.

When I-35E was routed through Oak Cliff in the 1950s, it cut Tenth Street, one of the last intact Freedman's Towns in the country, off from the neighborhoods and commerce around it. Halperin Park restores that physical connection. April's larger question is whether civic infrastructure can also rebuild what infrastructure interrupted — trust, belonging, economic opportunity, and the relationship between people and the place they live.

Delivered through a public-private partnership with the City of Dallas and the Texas Department of Transportation, the park represents nearly a decade of planning and advocacy. Phase I opened in May 2026 with 2.8 acres; Phase II will expand the park to 5.5 acres. April describes the hardest part as neither construction nor fundraising, but the trust infrastructure the project required: doing what you say you will do, seeing commitments through over years rather than quarters, and moving surrounding communities past being consulted and into genuine ownership of the place.

Her path to this work is unusual and explains a great deal about it. Trained as a mechanical engineer at the University of Waterloo with an MBA from Harvard Business School, she has worked in management consulting, at Neiman Marcus, in education leadership at KIPP, and on political campaigns. Analytical rigor, business strategy, institutional fluency, and neighborhood relationships are not a common combination. Halperin Park required all four.

The work has drawn attention well beyond Dallas. In June 2026, the park was the subject of a front-page New York Times story, "Bridging a Painful Divide in Dallas." Cities facing their own highway-divided neighborhoods now call regularly, and April has become an increasingly sought voice on infrastructure, civic trust, and equitable public space.

A Toronto native, April has called Oak Cliff home for more than twenty years. She and her husband, Sean, are members of Concord Church and the parents of two sons, August and Ellis. She is a graduate of Leadership Dallas and The OpEd Project at Texas Woman's University's Public Voices Thought Leadership Institute, a recipient of the D CEO Leadership Excellence Award, and was named to the Dallas Business Journal's 100 Texans to Watch.

JOEL FERRELL currently serves as Professor of Practice in Theatre and Inaugural Director of the Sexton Institute for Musical Theatre.

Joel Ferrell is a veteran director, choreographer, producer, and consultant. Ferrell has directed and choreographed for theatres across the United States, including Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center Theater, Portland Center Stage, North Shore Music Theater, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and Lyric Theater of Oklahoma.

Ferrell is the former Associate Artistic Director of the Dallas Theater Center (2011-2019), where he directed productions of Romeo and Juliet, Cabaret (starring Wade McCollum), Dividing the Estate (starring June Squibb), Dreamgirls (starring Marisha Wallace), and Frankenstein (in a co-production with Meadows School of the Arts). For the Dallas Theater Center, he served as a producer on new musicals including Fortress of Solitude by Micheal Freidman and Itamar Moses, Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson, and Fly by Rajiv Joseph and Bill Sherman, and directed by Broadway producer/director Jeffrey Seller. Ferrell is the recipient of the Linda and Bill Custard Award for his body of work in theater.

As Artistic Director of Casa Manana Musicals (Fort Worth, TX; 1996 to 2001) Ferrell directed productions of Once on This Island, Carousal, Rocky Horror Show, Oklahoma, The King and I, and Sleuth, among many others. Ferrell is currently Director in Residence for Theatre Three in Dallas where he has directed Blake Hackler’s new adaptation of The Seagull. Other Dallas/Fort Worth directing credits include Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Second Thought Theater’s Necessities by Blake Hackler (world premiere) and Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph (regional premiere), as well as regional premieres for Stage West and Circle Theatre.

Ferrell’s acting credits include Broadway National tours, regional theater, television, and film. His experience as a theater producer and creator has made him a valuable resource for non-profit and commercial organizations in their efforts to re-envision mission, purpose, and programming. He is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and a proud member of Society of Directors and Choreographers and Actor’s Equity Association.