Sylvia de Leon is the immediate past chair of The Washington Ballet Board of Directors, a position she held for a decade. de Leon is a lawyer and retired partner of Akin Gump, where she co-founded the firm’s public policy practice, its transportation practice, and served on the firm’s management committee. She has been active on corporate, university, independent school, hospital and non-profit boards, and on Presidential and Congressional commissions. She was confirmed by the United States Senate to the Amtrak Board of Directors, and served as its Vice Chair. She was active in the effort to bring highspeed rail to the US and to expand mass transit to “new starts” especially in Houston. For three decades she served as the Washington representative for the City of Houston and also represented the State of Texas. She has represented the United States on various international projects and delegations. As an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, she has taught Legislation and Legislative Advocacy and has lectured and mentored students at several universities. She is a founder of The Center for Women in Law at The University of Texas School of Law, a lifetime member of the University of Texas Development Board as well as several other boards connected to the University of Texas. On the Farnsworth Art Museum Board of Directors, she is on the executive committee and chairs the development committee and annual gala. In 2017 she chaired the Andrew Wyeth Centennial Celebration and produced the film “Betsy’s World”, a documentary about the life of Betsy Wyeth. A lifelong photographer, she participates in various initiatives to promote the arts in Washington, DC, Texas and Maine. She is married to Lynn R. Coleman and is the mother of three children.