News Reader

Letitia Hughes was elected to DeSoto City Council February 2021 (Special Election) to serve an unexpired term for Place Seven. Letitia Hughes is originally from Ennis, TX. She graduated from Ennis High School and later enrolled at the University of Texas Arlington in Arlington, TX to study Communications. Following her studies at the University of Texas in Arlington, she attended Paul Quinn College majoring in Business Management.

Councilmember Chism has served on commissions and projects before running for office. She served as Vice Chair for the DeSoto Domestic Violence Advisory Commission as well as a commissioner for the Citizens Police Advisory Committee. Councilmember Chism is also an advocate for DeSoto ISD and has served on several community engagement initiatives such as City of DeSoto and DeSoto ISD NeighborhoodYou as Co-Team Lead for Cockrell Hill Elementary, Female Leadership Symposium, and the Hall of Honors selection committee.

Dinah Marks is a Native of Auburn, Alabama. She graduated from Beauregard High School, Opelika, Alabama. As a recipient of a Four-Year Academic Scholarship to the school of her choice, she chose Alabama A&M University where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Education/English.

Andre’s leadership style should be considered as a servant leader. Regardless of his title or position, his approach is always to serve those he encounters. This is evident in his role as the controller with Medco Construction a 136 million dollar company, his consulting clients the Omni Corporation, the Rosewood Corporation, and Noble House Corporation—all which attest to Andre’s hallmark of integrating and balancing visionary leadership with common sense, problem-solving, and solution-oriented collaborations.

Nicole Raphiel joined the DeSoto City Council on February 20, 2018, when she was sworn-in to fill the vacancy in Place Three created by the departure of three-term City Council Member Deshaundra Lockhart Jones. Raphiel, a former chair of DeSoto’s Park Development Corporation Board, won the February 3rd special election to fill the remaining portion of Jones' term which runs through May 2019. Councilmember Raphiel has been a proud homeowner in DeSoto for more than two decades and is an active member at her longtime church, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas and is a proud mother of three young adults.