2023 Speakers

Laura S. Nieto serves as Director of Community Outreach at Southwest Airlines, where she leads the Company’s corporate giving and stewardship strategy. Founded on the principles of loving People, building resilience and living responsibly, Laura oversees Southwest’s strategic community investments, employee engagement and volunteerism, foundation giving, sustainability programs and social impact initiatives.
She and her team work to ensure Southwest is a trusted partner by nurturing authentic relationships and championing causes that help communities thrive. Laura has a passion for developing innovative programs that engage and empower diverse communities. Under her leadership, Southwest has been recognized as an industry leader and outstanding corporate citizen.

Laura graduated from Texas Tech University with a B.A. in public relations and was named a 2016 Distinguished Alumni. Laura is recognized as a Top Latino Leader in Texas by the Texas Diversity Council and is a graduate of the Dallas Regional Chamber’s Leadership Dallas program. She serves as a board member of the Texas Women’s Foundation.

Laura achieved her goal of becoming a Six Star Finisher by completing the six World Marathon Majors. She is a Texas native and resides in Dallas with her husband and daughter.

Debbie grew up in Duncanville, Texas. Graduated in 1989 and started college at SFA. After three semesters, she transferred to UTA where she met Joey McGuire in 1992. They were married in 1994. They have two beautiful children. Raegan was born in 1996 and Garret in 1999. Raegan lives in NYC and is a fashion designer at AMUR and getting married in May.  Garret is the new wide receivers coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Debbie’s favorite child, Charlie, has four legs and is the ruler of their home. She loved volunteering at her children’s schools and attending all the things.  Her children grew up loving sports from their first breath and very rarely missed a high school game of their daddys. In their 29 years of marriage she might have missed 8 games total – 3 were when Raegan had sorority commitments her freshman year here at Tech and one was our first game against West Virginia covid year at Baylor when fans were not allowed.

Before moving to Lubbock, she worked in the family business for the past 30 years. She still does a little work but Texas Tech Football is more of a full-time job for me now. When she is not at practices, dinners, or functions for Texas Tech, she loves long lunches and dinners with our football wives. She loves to travel and hates to shop and would rather go to a sporting event than a mall any day! Her parents are her best friends and she talks to her dad a minimum of 3 times a day but usually 5. Her favorite time of the year is Christmas and she spends all of November and December watching Hallmark Christmas Movies!  She is am determined to learn how to play Mah Jongg and take up tennis in 2023.