Public relations degree from the University of Texas at Austin in hand, Lindsey Brown blazed a career path as an ace quick-fire publicist. Brown went from a PR firm with offices in Dallas and Houston to the Houston Ballet Academy to a decade as director of marketing and public relations for the Greater Houston CVB (now Houston First), where she elevated the city’s image with award-winning projects like the celebrity-driven “My Houston” campaign.
In 2015, she co-founded the Southern Smoke Foundation, a national crisis relief organization for food and beverage workers, with her husband, James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd. In 2023, she became executive director for the organization, which since 2017 has distributed more than $14.5 million to F&B workers in need.
Currently supporting workers impacted by the Texas Hill Country floods, Brown shared her fire for helping those who care for others with Meetings Today Senior Contributor Jeff Heilman.
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What fundamentals guided your career choices?
Passion and instinct. Leaving PR to work as special projects coordinator for the Houston Ballet may not have made sense at the time, but it was a personal passion I had to follow, having trained as a classical ballerina through age 18. I later co-founded Ballet Barre, the Houston Ballet’s young professionals’ group, and still serve on their Board of Trustees.
In 2016, I launched my own PR agency. Leaving that behind to run Southern Smoke was another difficult choice. Every instinct told me it was the right move though, and I could not be happier with my decision.
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What inspired you and Chris to create the Southern Smoke Foundation?
You don’t know what you don’t know, and sometimes that naivety can guide you to the right places. We started as a single-day festival with no plans to grow any bigger than that. Then Hurricane Harvey steered us in a new direction and we became a year-round crisis relief foundation.
The industry pushed us to invest in mental health, which birthed our Behind You program, after the phrase spoken by workers when close-up in the kitchen. Southern Smoke Foundation is small and nimble, which allows us to respond to the needs of the community, but we are also good at staying in our lane.
Our one mission is to provide a safety net for the F&B industry, which we achieve through emergency relief funding and access to no-cost mental health counseling, with a continuous focus on program improvement to offer even greater support.
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In June 2025, Cherry Bombe recognized you as one of 100 women who “make the culinary world a more interesting, inspiring and innovative place” on its first Power List. What are your personal rewards as an industry champion?
It is a privilege every day. I love the nationwide Southern Smoke community, which along with F&B workers includes amazing partners and supporters who genuinely believe in our mission. The F&B industry is so special, and I am lucky to be able to play a small part in the health and longevity of the industry.
Congratulations on your milestone in 2025—10 years for Southern Smoke and five years married to Chris, equally an industry champion and ambassador after putting Houston on the map with his 2014 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest. Here’s to the power of collaboration!
Thank you! We lead with empathy and compassion, and relationships and partnerships are everything. Southern Smoke Foundation literally could not function without our F&B partners, our partnerships, our incredible donors and our staff who give 100% every day. No one is an island, and we are much more powerful together.
