Ten years ago, if you had told Diana Combs-Selman that one day she’d be running her own company, she’d have thought you were crazy. But this is America. And despite what you’ve heard about the decline of the American dream, it’s still possible to beat the odds.
Back then, Combs-Selman was a recovering alcoholic who had been homeless for about a decade, a lost soul “couch-surfing” and no longer in touch with her kids. She was near rock-bottom when an old friend reached out and steered her toward recovery. Down to her last three dollars, she was buying toothpaste at a Dollar Tree when she decided to ask for a job. The manager took a chance on her, starting a series of steps in a positive direction. She became an assistant manager, earned her GED, enrolled at Tarrant County College, won a transfer scholarship to Texas Christian University where she majored in graphic design, and eventually landed a job at an IT services company. One evening, drawn by a flyer touting free pizza at Rahr Brewing, she attended a meeting for a breast cancer fundraiser, Bras for a Cause, which was chaired by Rattana Mao.
Mao has her own incredible story. A Cambodian refugee, she arrived in the U.S. as a baby in the early 1980s when her parents fled the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge. With the help of Catholic Charities USA, the family landed in Fort Worth. After graduating from Arizona State University, Mao went on to earn an MBA before joining Comerica Bank. Eager to give back, she threw herself into community work in Fort Worth and discovered her knack for organizing events. Producing marketing materials, on the other hand, was not her specialty. So when Combs-Selman offered to redo the artwork for the Bras for a Cause event, Mao jumped at her proposal.
Mao says Combs-Selman’s work was “amazing,” and before long she was calling to ask for her help on other projects. Together, the pair eventually built such a reputation that groups began asking if they could hire them. That led the two women to form their own company, R&D Occasions, last year. The full-service event planning company handles all aspects of fundraising events—everything from creating the program and handling check-in to lining up media sponsors and branding.
Already they’ve lined up an impressive client list, from the Salvation Army’s Inspiring Hope Luncheon at AT&T Stadium to an art exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum put on by the Multicultural Arts Alliance. Not surprisingly, much of their work has a deeper purpose. R&D’s first client was Valiant Hearts, a Southlake-based organization that helps women break out of lives of sexual exploitation. The group hoped to raise about $60,000 at its event, and with R&D’s help, reached $124,000.
Combs-Selman credits God and strong women for helping turn her life around and calls it an “accidental purpose” that R&D focuses on causes that aid women. Now 42, she is remarried and has reconnected with her children. She serves on the board of The Center for Transforming Lives in Fort Worth, which helps poor women move out of homelessness and poverty. “The women who surrounded me in recovery didn’t allow me to sit and feel sorry for myself,” she says. “They told me that I could do anything and be anything.”
Mao, 38, is driven to give back to the city and country that embraced and supported her refugee parents. “They could have stopped my parents from coming here,” she says. What a loss that would have been.
Steve Kaskovich is the Deputy Managing Editor of Business for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
