> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Texas transplant digs her heels into chamber - URL: https://www.smdp.com/texas-transplant-digs-her-heels-into-chamber/ - Published: 2004-03-15T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T04:01:45.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Education, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness *Kathy Dodson* DOWNTOWN — A vocal opponent of City Hall bureaucracy, the local politics of homelessness and other issues that threaten Santa Monica’s quality of life, Kathy Dodson has helped steer the local chamber of commerce through the recession that followed 9-11. As president and CEO, Dodson, a 38-year-old native of Texas, oversaw the re-growth of the chamber to above 1,000 merchants. She also was at the helm when the chamber formed a political action committee, starting its active foray into local elections. The oldest child of a physician and medical technician, Dodson said she was taught early in life that nothing was beyond her reach. After graduating with a degree in English and business from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Dodson went on to study at the American Graduate School of International Management — or “Thunderbird” — in Phoenix. But her education didn’t end with a business degree. Dodson worked for two years in Mexico for a diesel engine company before returning to the United States to earn her Ph.D in parks, recreation and tourism management from Clemson University, in South Carolina. “The whole theme kept going in my mind,” she said in an interview at the chamber offices at Colorado Avenue and Fifth Street last week. “It’s kind of strange to everyone else, but to me it made sense.” After seven months working on her dissertation in Belize, Dodson moved back to Texas and took a job with the local chamber there. She later spent five years in commercial and industrial real estate investment before taking the job in Santa Monica in August of 2001. Here, the Daily Press caught up with Dodson and asked her, “Why Santa Monica?” Why did you move here? “I came here for the job, but I did have several opportunities in Los Angeles and to me Santa Monica is one of the most dynamic cities in the world, not just in this country. It’s dealing with a lot of the issues that most American cities will be dealing with in 19 or 20 years. A lot of that is because there’s no urban sprawl in Santa Monica. It’s totally built out and it has to find a way for its residents, visitors and tourists — and the large number of people who come to work here every day — to all get along as one community.” What was it like to move from El Paso, a more conservative community, to Santa Monica? How are things different than you expected? “It’s more than more conservative, it’s got completely different problems. (El Paso) is a poor community and the No. 1 concern for businesses, residents and everyone there is job creation, and that means that all of your policies, your programs within the chamber, within the city, are focused on creating jobs. In Santa Monica that’s not necessarily the case, although we certainly want to continue to increase the quality of jobs in Santa Monica. But Santa Monica is also much more focused on quality-of-life issues.” How have you adapted from dealing with a City Hall that is eager to create new jobs to a more adversarial relationship with a City Hall here that tempers job growth with protection of the community? “Although we certainly have (adver-sarial) areas in Santa Monica, we also have areas where we work very closely with them. Some of the issues that we deal with here I also dealt with in El Paso, and that is improving the process that companies go through — or residents for that matter — when they’re trying to open a new business or remodel a business or home. There, everyone was focused on job creation. Here, people are focused on quality-of-life issues, but I think the perfect example of what I’m having trouble putting in words is when you take the homeless issue. “The city spends a lot of money on homeless issues... but the one point we want to make is, ‘That’s great... but you’re still not addressing the issues that residents and businesses have about the vagrancy.’ It’s really not so much the homelessness... it’s the vagrancy, the bad behavior that everyone would like to see stopped...” What about doing business in Santa Monica is different than you expected? “I will say I was really surprised by the trouble that small, mom-and-pop type businesses have opening here. And this is an area, again, where I think the city’s views — they say they want these type of businesses, they don’t want the big businesses — but the process is so difficult, it takes so much time and money... that Dodson said she moved to Redondo Beach to “split the difference” with her husband Tom, an international businessman who works out of an office in Tustin. Salary: Declined to state. Born: Aug. 2, 1965 in Dallas, Tex. Raised: Irving, Tex. Residence: Redondo Beach condominium. Education: Bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University. Business degree from the American Graduate School of International Management. Ph.D from Clemson University. Background: Worked for a diesel engine company in Mexico for two years; the El Paso Chamber of Commerce for two years, and in commercial and industrial real estate investment for five years before taking her current job in Santa Monica. Family: Younger brother, Joe, 35\. Husband, Tom, 38\. Hobbies: Riding her bike on the beach in the South Bay, hiking and traveling. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 15, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)