Dallas Lifestyle Guru Moll Anderson Hosts Leadership Retreat for Visionary Women

Moll Anderson may be a New York Times bestselling author, inspirational life and home design expert, TV and radio host, singer, animal rights activist, and philanthropist — but I just call her my dear friend. We had an instant connection when she arrived in Dallas from Tennessee, where she and her husband, Charlie Anderson, keep a home.

The multi-hyphenate also serves as the newest ambassador of Visionary Women, a Los Angeles-based membership-based community of 300-plus women from around the country, with a name that pretty much sums it up. The group consists of visionary founders and leaders from sectors ranging from the arts and medicine to politics, entrepreneurship, and entertainment.

Since its founding in 2014, Visionary Women has dispersed $3 million to 200-plus nonprofits, and recently, they were in Dallas for a summit. Moll Anderson lobbied for this leadership retreat, and a group of more than 30 women came together for a one-of-a-kind experience with local tastemakers and leaders that included a dinner hosted by Brian Bolke at The Conservatory; a private tour of The Warehouse led by Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, followed by lunch at the Rachofsky House; a private tour of the AT&T Stadium art collection; lunch and a “Creating Legacy” panel discussion at The Pump House with host Deedie Rose, Cindy Rachofsky, and Marguerite Hoffman; and other stops.

The retreat kicked off with a dinner hosted by Moll Anderson at her Preston Hollow home. Given that the organization enjoys listening to women with a voice, Anderson held a salon talk with Cornelia Guest, who moved to Dallas in 2020. Guest’s multi-hyphens resemble Moll Anderson’s — author, lifestyle guru, animal rights activist, philanthropist — but she was also dubbed the Deb of the Decade in the ’80s. Their free-ranging conversation covered everything from how to address animal-welfare issues to entertaining tips that Guest learned from her mother, Capote swan C.Z. Guest, and memories of growing up amongst such icons as Andy Warhol and Halston.

Given that Cassandra Moses and her team from Art 2 Catering were in the kitchen, it was one of those dinners where I paid attention to every scrumptious course. Up first was a vertical salad of romaine lettuce, black beans, radish, avocado, hard-boiled egg, tomatoes, turkey bacon, queso fresco, and roasted shallot vinaigrette. The second course was a divine vegetable cannelloni with fennel, zucchini, and creamy cider sauce with 44 Farms beef tenderloin skewers. We finished our dining adventure with chocolate crème brûlée with caramel sauce.

In town for the retreat were notables including Visionary Women co-founders Angella Nazarian and the Honorable Lili Bosse, three-time mayor of Beverly Hills; Shelley Reid; arts patron Carolyn Clark Powers, current president of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A.; Chloe Makhani; Malea Farsai-Zafari; Nina Kotick; and Soraya Nazarian. Locals in attendance included Nancy Rogers, Todd Fiscus, Kasey Lemkin, Brian Bolke, Suzanne Droese, Missy Peck, and, behind the turntables, Lucy Wrubel.