Command Performance

2026 Tom Adams Award Of Appreciation For Dedication To Titas And The Arts /
DeMetris Sampson

DeMetris Sampson is a volunteer, supporter, participant, and advisor in local, state and national civic, political and philanthropic communities. She is an ardent supporter of the Arts. She has served on the TITAS Dance/Unbound board since 2017 and served as President of the TITAS Board from July 2019 to June 2022.

DeMetris currently serves as Chair of the DFW International Airport Board and as Board Chair of the Zan Wesley Holmes, Jr. Community Outreach Center. She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., serving on its International Connection and Social Action Committee, and The Links, Incorporated, serving on her chapter’s Arts committee. She holds memberships in the Dallas Breakfast Group, the Dallas Summit, the Women’s Leadership Summit, the Dallas Assembly, and is a life member of the NAACP and the National Bar Association.

DeMetris has co-chaired local bond campaigns for DISD and the City of Dallas; served on the boards of DART, the Dallas Regional Chamber, and the East Texas State University (now Texas A & M Commerce) Board of Regents; served on the Dallas Charter Review Commission and Dallas’ Domestic Violence Task Force, and on the regional selection committee for White House Fellows.

She retired in January 2014 from the law firm of Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP where she had practiced in the Dallas office for nearly 27 years, served as Managing Partner of the law firm’s Dallas Office, and as a chairperson of the firm’s Management Committee. She is the first African American woman to become a partner in a majority firm in the City of Dallas.?

Ms. Sampson holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law, and a Master of Laws in Taxation from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. She has been recognized with the Honorary Order of the Coif and the Virgil C. Lott Medal by the UT School of Law.

She has received numerous professional and community service awards including the AKA Image Award (Omicron Mu Omega Chapter); the Congressional Black Caucus Spouses “Unsung Hero” Award; Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award (the University of Texas Ex-Students Association); Maura Award from the Women’s Center of Dallas; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Award (Dallas Bar Association); Women’s Enterprise Magazine; Dallas Branch NAACP Community Service; Women of Spirit Award, American Jewish Congress; President’s Award, Dallas Urban League;? Heritage Award from the African-American Museum; Humanitarian Award from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.(Alpha Sigma Lambda Chapter); and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators “Nation Builders Award”.

DeMetris strongly feels that dance “feeds my very soul”.