Category: Kennedy Center Trustee Appointed: Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, on or about December 3, 2020 — named in a first-Trump-term White House “intent to appoint” announcement (archived at trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov, URL date-stamped 120320) alongside a batch of other post-election board appointments, and independently corroborated by Deadline’s December 2020 reporting. She does not appear in the February 13, 2025 White House release naming the board’s February 2025 reconstitution appointees, which is treated here as evidence her tenure is continuous from the 2020 appointment rather than a new 2025 appointment. Wikipedia’s infobox states a “January 2025” appointment date; that claim is not supported by the primary and Tier 2 sourcing reviewed and is not relied on here. Priority: No priority rating — network mapping only, pending editorial review of her recorded August 13, 2026 roll-call vote (see Basis for Inclusion).

Basis for Inclusion

Subject classification: Private Citizen Non-Speech Anchor: Not established as of this revision; Anchor E is open for editorial determination (see below). Anchors A through D are tested and not met. Anchor B (Organizational Leadership) fails because Bowers holds no board office — the Kennedy Center’s own trustees page lists named officers (Secretary, Treasurer, General Counsel) separately, and Bowers appears only in the general “Members Appointed by the President of the United States” list with no title; the preliminary minutes of the September 15, 2026 special meeting likewise list the executive officers (Chairman Trump, Vice Chair Jennifer Fischer, Secretary Brian Ballard, Treasurer John Falconetti) and list Bowers only as a “Presidential Appointee.” General board membership without a documented leadership function does not qualify. Anchor E (Official Non-Elected Position) — updated October 5, 2026; reopened the same day. The September 19 draft said no source individually attributed any vote, statement, or advocacy on a specific board action to Bowers. That is no longer true, on two records. September 15, 2026. The preliminary minutes of the board’s special meeting, filed in federal court by the trustee defendants themselves (ECF No. 88-9), record Bowers speaking during board discussion in favor of the closure resolution: she “described the court’s interference as a travesty and urged that the Center be closed, repaired and returned to business.” The resolution “carried by show of hands,” with “no numerical count” taken; the minutes name only the three trustees who voted no (Reps. Joyce Beatty and Rick Larsen, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse). The record does not say how Bowers voted, and this profile does not infer it. August 13, 2026. The preliminary minutes of the August 13 board meeting, filed by the trustee defendants as Exhibit B to ECF No. 68 and attested by the Center’s vice president for board relations (ECF No. 68-1), record Bowers attending virtually and voting Yes on two roll calls: the August 13 closure resolution, and the “recognition” resolution honoring President Trump. Two of the recognition resolution’s three items — the “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” inscription and the renaming of the grounds as “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” — are the ones the court held on September 15, 2026 violate the May 29, 2026 permanent injunction (ECF No. 77). See Documented Actions §3. The October 5 draft rested its NO on three points, and the August 13 roll call changes the first two. (1) No individual vote recorded — no longer true of the recognition resolution; still true of the September 15 closure and the December 18, 2025 renaming. (2) The action has not been found unlawful — still true of the closure (pending emergency motion, ECF No. 84, no ruling); not true of the recognition resolution, two of whose three items a federal court enjoined. (3) What the record attributes to her is speech — true of the September 15 remarks; a recorded vote is not speech. The same August 13 minutes carry the context an editor needs to weigh: before the vote, General Counsel Elliot Berke told the board that the Center’s position, reached with DOJ and OMB, was that the recognition “does not constitute a memorial or a plaque in the nature of a memorial” and would not violate the injunction; Secretary Lutnick said that if the court disagreed, the board would not execute it; Rep. Beatty said she had been advised it “may not be in compliance.” Whether a recorded vote for a resolution later enjoined in part, cast on counsel’s stated assurance of legality, is use of the position “to advance the harmful conduct” is the determination this profile has not made. On the December 18, 2025 renaming vote, no source individually attributes a vote, statement, or advocacy to her; she was one of roughly 30-40 trustees present for a vote characterized institutionally as unanimous, with the one documented irregularity (a muted dissenting trustee) attributed to board leadership, not to her. Anchors A (criminal charge/conviction) and C (financial enablement) fail for absence of any evidence. Anchor D (voluntary self-injection) fails: her public statements — a September 27, 2025 gala interview with Fox News praising Trump’s takeover and calling departing artists’ withdrawals “disgraceful,” a February 2026 social media post expressing pride in the appointment, and a written statement to a magazine defending marital/family privacy — are non-qualifying speech under the gate (expressing political support; giving an opinion at a public event is not assuming a leadership or coordination role in the controversy). Strip Test result: Removing all speech-based evidence (the Fox News interview, the social media post, the magazine statement, and the content of her September 15, 2026 board remarks) leaves: a December 2020 presidential board appointment (a status, not misconduct); recorded Yes votes on the August 13, 2026 closure and recognition resolutions, two of the latter’s three items since held by a federal court to violate the permanent injunction; a recorded vote, among 15 in favor, at the June 11, 2026 meeting to seek a stay and appeal of the renaming injunction (a litigation decision, not misconduct); attendance at the September 15, 2026 special meeting that adopted the closure resolution, with no recorded individual vote; marriage to Paul Dans, a documented Project 2025 architect and 2025 U.S. Senate candidate (association, which does not transfer accountability under NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware); and undifferentiated named defendant and appellant status, alongside roughly 40+ other trustees, in Beatty v. Trump, represented generically by DOJ Civil Division counsel with no individual counsel of record. The September 19 draft called the result a clean NO; the October 5 draft called it borderline, treated as NO, and named the one record that would move it: a roll-call record of her individual vote on the renaming, the August 13 resolution, or the closure. That record now exists for the August 13 resolution (ECF No. 68-3). This revision does not re-run the gate on its own authority. The classification, the NO, and the disposition below stand only until an editor decides the Anchor E question above. Editorial review required before republication. Disposition: This entry is retained as a factual network-mapping record only, documenting the trustee status, her recorded roll-call votes at the June 11 and August 13, 2026 meetings, her recorded participation in the September 15, 2026 board deliberation, the Paul Dans context as marital/spousal background (not her own conduct), and the litigation-party status, without accountability conclusions or a priority rating. What is NOT the basis for inclusion: Bowers’s marriage to Paul Dans, her political affiliation, her fitness-industry career, and her undifferentiated board membership are not, standing alone, the basis for this entry. Her formal board membership is documented status, not a documented individual act, and does not by itself establish an accountability finding. Protected speech documented in this profile: [A] Statements and speech documented in this profile are included for factual and historical context only. They are protected under the First Amendment and do not independently form the basis for inclusion.

Background

Mary Helen Bowers (b. 1979, Charlotte, North Carolina) is a former New York City Ballet dancer and the founder of the fitness brand Ballet Beautiful. A full-scholarship student at the School of American Ballet from age 15, she was invited to join New York City Ballet at 16 and danced with the company for roughly a decade (c. 1995-2005). She holds a BA in English literature from Columbia University. She trained actress Natalie Portman for Portman’s Academy Award-winning role in Black Swan (2010), and founded Ballet Beautiful in 2008 (per Wikipedia; Harper’s Bazaar dates her first paid class to 2009), publishing Ballet Beautiful: Transform Your Body and Gain the Strength, Grace, and Focus of a Ballet Dancer in 2012. Her reported client roster has included Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, and Liv Tyler. The Ballet Beautiful studio in New York closed permanently in March 2020 and the business now operates online only; Bowers and her family relocated to South Carolina around 2020.

Spousal/contextual background — Paul Dans (not Bowers’s own conduct)

Bowers married Paul Dans in 2007; they have four children. The following documents Dans’s own career and is included solely as the reported context for Bowers’s Kennedy Center appointment, per Harper’s Bazaar’s reporting — it is not attributed to Bowers as her own conduct:

Paul Dans served as a senior adviser in the Office of Community Planning and Development at HUD in 2019, then as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. He subsequently became director of the Heritage Foundation’s “Presidential Transition Project,” publicly known as Project 2025 (2022-2024) — the blueprint for restructuring the federal government under a second Trump term, and the architect of a database of MAGA-aligned candidates for federal jobs reported by ProPublica. Dans left Heritage in July 2024 as the Trump campaign publicly distanced itself from Project 2025; Harper’s Bazaar reports media accounts attributed his departure partly to “his behavior toward women,” which the Heritage Foundation denied on the record (“Heritage’s previously reported concerns did not involve any issues with his integrity or inappropriate/offensive behavior towards women”). Dans announced a U.S. Senate primary challenge against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on July 30, 2025.

Harper’s Bazaar’s reporting frames Bowers’s Kennedy Center appointment as following “the following year” after Dans’s 2019 entry into the Trump administration, and states that Bowers’s A-list fitness clientele were “shocked and even betrayed” to learn — mostly in 2024 — that her husband was a Project 2025 architect and that she held a Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board seat, information Bowers had not volunteered. No source reviewed identifies any independent basis for Bowers’s own selection (donor history, arts-administration record, or personal political activity predating the marriage).

Bowers declined an interview for the Harper’s Bazaar piece and provided a written statement: “Ballet Beautiful has always been a place where people come together to focus on their fitness… We need to protect neutral areas where people can come together. Women seeking to cancel a woman for her husband’s politics is not only mean-spirited, unfeminine, and unmotherly — it’s also out of fashion.” And separately: “Our clients’ family affairs and political views are none of our business, and will never be a part of our business.” This statement is documented here as protected speech providing context and is not the basis for inclusion.

At the National Symphony Orchestra’s 95th anniversary gala at the Kennedy Center on September 27, 2025, Bowers gave Fox News Digital an on-the-record interview, published October 2, 2025, in which the outlet identified her as “a member of the board of trustees who joined in 2020 under President Donald Trump.” Asked about artists who had pulled out of performances since the “Trump takeover,” she said: “I think it’s disgraceful. I think it’s a major mistake when you politicize the arts and I think a lot of the former leadership of the Kennedy Center was doing exactly that, and we’re thrilled to have President Trump, who’s a great leader and supporter of the arts, come in and focus on putting on performances that people want to be at, inviting families back into the Kennedy Center because I think a lot of families felt very unwelcome previously, largely because of some of the programming that was going on, which were intentional choices.” She also said that “with Grenell’s leadership” — Richard Grenell, the Center’s leader at the time — “he’s very focused on the bottom line and the financial health of the center.” The article reports the gala raised $3.45 million; it does not attribute any gala role (chair or host) to Bowers. This interview is documented as protected speech providing context and is not the basis for inclusion.

Documented Actions

1. Kennedy Center Trustee Status

Mary Helen Bowers was named to the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees on or about December 3, 2020, per a White House “intent to appoint” announcement archived at trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov (URL date-stamped 120320), naming “Mary Helen Bowers, of South Carolina, to be a Member of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” This is independently corroborated by Deadline, which reported in December 2020 that Trump had appointed “Mary Helen Bowers, fitness guru and former New York City Ballet dancer” to the board as part of a batch of donor/loyalist appointments made in the post-election lame-duck period. Kennedy Center trustees serve six-year terms. Bowers’s name does not appear in the White House’s February 13, 2025 press release naming the appointees who filled other vacant trustee seats during the board’s February 2025 reconstitution, which is treated here as evidence of continuous tenure since the December 2020 appointment rather than a new appointment. On the Kennedy Center’s own trustees page, Bowers is listed only among general “Members Appointed by the President of the United States,” without a board office — unlike named officers such as the Secretary, Treasurer, and General Counsel.

2. Litigation Party Status — Beatty v. Trump

Mary Helen Bowers is confirmed as an individually named defendant in Beatty v. Trump, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No. 1:25-cv-04480, filed December 22, 2025 by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH-3), an ex officio Kennedy Center trustee, assigned to Judge Christopher R. Cooper (CourtListener docket ID 72069932; entries reviewed through No. 94, October 2, 2026). She is represented generically by DOJ Civil Division counsel alongside other trustee co-defendants, with no individual counsel of record or distinguishing role noted on the docket. The suit challenges board-level actions including the renaming of the institution and the stripping of ex officio trustees’ voting rights.

Procedural history, as stated in the court’s September 15, 2026 memorandum opinion (ECF No. 77) and the appellate docket:

• May 29, 2026 — the court granted summary judgment for Beatty on the renaming, holding that the board’s decision violated the 1983 amendment barring “additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials” at the Center (20 U.S.C. § 76j(b)(1)), and entered a permanent injunction ordering Trump’s name removed from the main building and from other physical and digital signage and official materials within two weeks.
• June 11-12, 2026 — defendants appealed and sought a stay; the district court denied it. The board’s approved minutes of its June 11, 2026 special meeting (ECF No. 68-2) record a roll-call vote on Douglas Manchester’s “resolution for a stay and appeal” — 15 in favor, Bowers among them; 2 against (Larsen, Whitehouse); 3 abstentions (Beatty, Bondi, Lutnick). Bowers is listed among the appellants on the notice of appeal in D.C. Circuit No. 26-5224 (docketed June 12, 2026), represented by DOJ counsel. On June 12 a D.C. Circuit panel (Millett, Wilkins, Katsas) denied an immediate administrative stay (Order No. 2178670). The Kennedy Center then removed Trump’s name from signage, websites and trademark applications (Bloomberg Law, June 12, 2026).
• July 8, 2026 — the same panel denied the stay pending appeal (Order No. 2182243). (Correction to the September 19 draft, which dated the stay-pending-appeal denial to June 12; June 12 was the administrative-stay denial.)
• August 13, 2026 — the board passed a resolution “to recognize and honor President Trump’s current and future existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the Center” in three ways: a “renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump” inscription, an “endowed by The Trump Kennedy Center Fund” inscription, and renaming the campus “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
• September 15, 2026 — the court held that the renovation inscription and the plaza renaming violate the permanent injunction and enjoined both; it denied as unripe the request to enjoin the endowment inscription. “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.” The government noticed an appeal the same day (ECF No. 79), docketed September 16, 2026 as D.C. Circuit No. 26-5322. Discovery opened September 16 under a scheduling order (ECF No. 82).
• September 16-October 2, 2026 — Beatty filed an emergency motion for a hearing on the shutdown (ECF No. 84). The trustee defendants, Bowers among the named filers, moved to vacate or dissolve the May 29 injunction and for partial summary judgment (ECF Nos. 88, 89), and filed status reports with declarations from executive director Matt Floca (ECF Nos. 91, 94). As of October 2, 2026, the docket reviewed shows no ruling on the shutdown motion.

The court’s opinions attribute no vote or act to Bowers individually. Three board-minutes exhibits on the docket do record her individual participation in board business: the approved June 11, 2026 minutes (ECF No. 68-2, above), the preliminary August 13, 2026 minutes (ECF No. 68-3; see §3), and the preliminary September 15, 2026 minutes (ECF No. 88-9; see §4). Her litigation-party status is institutional co-defendant status by virtue of board membership, not a finding or allegation of personal conduct.

Separately, the board’s December 18, 2025 vote to rename the Center after Trump was publicly characterized as unanimous; the only documented irregularity reported (CNN, December 18, 2025) is that Rep. Beatty, the lone identified dissenter, was muted and prevented from voting or speaking. No source individually attributes a vote, statement, or advocacy to Bowers regarding that vote.

3. August 13, 2026 Meeting — Recorded Votes

The trustee defendants filed the preliminary minutes of the board’s August 13, 2026 meeting on August 24, 2026 as Exhibit B to their response to Beatty’s emergency motion (ECF No. 68-3). Joseph LaFauci, the Center’s vice president for board relations, attests that he took them, that they are “preliminary because they have not yet been presented to the Board for approval,” and that they “accurately reflect the discussions and content of the meeting” (ECF No. 68-1). They record:

• Attendance. Bowers attended virtually, listed as a “Presidential Appointee.” She held no office at the meeting. The minutes attribute no remarks to her.
• Closure resolution (Item VIII). Moved by Treasurer John Falconetti. It closes the main building “for restoration and renovation,” continues programming at the REACH and off-site, temporarily relocates the Memorial to President Kennedy to the REACH, and directs the executive director to seek to dissolve “the preliminary injunction … currently preventing closure of the main building.” Carried by roll call, announced as 23 in favor, 3 opposed (Beatty, Larsen, Whitehouse). Bowers: Yes.
• Recognition resolution (Item X). Moved by Secretary Brian Ballard, seconded by Falconetti; not on the agenda, an objection Sen. Whitehouse raised before the vote. It resolves to honor President Trump with the three items set out in §2 — the “renovated and restored by” inscription, the endowment inscription once the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reaches $100 million, and “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” — effective after 14 days. Carried by roll call, announced as 20 in favor, 3 opposed (Beatty, Larsen, Whitehouse). Bowers: Yes.
• What the board was told before the recognition vote. General Counsel Elliot Berke said that, in consultation with DOJ and OMB, “the proposed recognition does not constitute a memorial or a plaque in the nature of a memorial within the meaning of the statute,” and that “this resolution will not violate the injunction currently in place.” Secretary Lutnick said “if the court were to disagree, the Board would not execute it.” Rep. Beatty said she would vote against it, “having been advised that it may not be in compliance.”

On September 15, 2026 the court held that the first and third items violate the permanent injunction and enjoined both (ECF No. 77; see §2).

What this record does and does not show. It shows Bowers casting an individually recorded Yes vote for a resolution two of whose three items a federal court has since enjoined, and a Yes vote for a closure resolution that has not been held unlawful. It does not show that she spoke for either, or what she knew beyond what the minutes record the board being told. These are preliminary minutes. The announced tallies do not match the roll-call tables printed beneath them — the tables list 25 Yes votes on the closure resolution against an announced 23, and 23 Yes votes on the recognition resolution against an announced 20 — though nothing in the minutes puts Bowers’s own entry in question. See Basis for Inclusion for the open Anchor E determination.

4. September 15, 2026 Special Meeting — Closure Resolution

The board voted on March 16, 2026 to shut down operations for two years after the July 4 celebrations and to install Matt Floca as executive director (AP, March 16, 2026; no individual trustees named, no vote count reported). On September 15, 2026, the day of Judge Cooper’s second ruling, the board met in a special session by Zoom and voted to close the main building “to patrons forthwith,” citing a Grand Foyer ceiling collapse and consultant findings of systemic structural failure.

The preliminary minutes of that meeting, filed in court by the trustee defendants on September 18, 2026 as Exhibit C to their motion to vacate (ECF No. 88-9), record:

• Attendance. Bowers attended virtually and is listed as a “Presidential Appointee” present at roll call — one of 24 trustees, together with 4 ex officio members, present at roll call. She held no office at the meeting.
• Her remarks. “Ms. Mary Helen Bowers spoke from the perspective of a performing artist, noting that she performs with New York City Ballet. She spoke in favor of the renovations, citing health and safety hazards for audience members and for employees of the Center, and stated that world-class talent requires a world-class facility. She noted that the risks shown in the video extend beyond the main hall to performers, stagehands and the entire crew. Ms. Bowers described the court’s interference as a travesty and urged that the Center be closed, repaired and returned to business.” (The present-tense reference to New York City Ballet is the minutes’ paraphrase; the other sourcing reviewed places her NYCB career at c. 1995-2005.)
• The vote. Motion by Douglas Manchester, seconded by Patricia Duggan. “Motion carried by show of hands. A clear majority of raised hands voted in favor, with three members voting in opposition — Representative Joyce Beatty, Representative Rick Larsen and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. No numerical count was taken.” The minutes also state that the resolution “was not read into the record in full and was not displayed to the Board during the meeting.”
• The resolution. Adopted “in addition to the resolution passed by the Board on August 13, 2026,” it closes the main building, moves programming to the REACH and off-site venues (including the Kennedy Center Honors), and temporarily relocates the Memorial to President Kennedy to the REACH.

Beatty notified the court the same day (ECF No. 78) that the board had approved the closure resolution, and that the Chairman then posted on Truth Social that the “closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name.”

What this record does and does not show. It shows Bowers attending and arguing, in her trustee capacity, for the closure. It does not show how she voted — no individual votes were recorded except the three opposed — and these are preliminary minutes, filed before any board approval. (At this same meeting, Beatty disputed the accuracy of the previous meeting’s minutes and the board agreed to correct them against the recording — a reason to treat board minutes as a party’s summary, not a transcript.) The closure has not been held unlawful. See Basis for Inclusion.

5. Family Ties (Background Only)

Her husband, Paul Dans, held senior positions at HUD and OPM during the first Trump administration, directed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 (2022-2024), and ran a 2025 U.S. Senate primary campaign against Sen. Lindsey Graham. This fact is noted for background context only, per Harper’s Bazaar’s reporting on the connection between Dans’s career and Bowers’s appointment, and is not independently a basis for this entry.

Cross-References

Related profiles: kennedy-center-board-overview

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Investigative trail pointers (public records)

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Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Mary Helen Bowers,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Helen_Bowers, accessed September 18, 2026. (Its claim of a “January 2025” appointment date is contradicted by the primary and Tier 2 sourcing below and is not relied on for that fact.)
2. The White House (National Archives-preserved archive site), “President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint the Following Individuals to Key Administration Posts,” issued on/about December 3, 2020. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-appoint-following-individuals-key-administration-posts-120320
3. Ted Johnson, “Donald Trump, Nearing End Of Presidency, Taps Supporters For Slots On Kennedy Center Board Of Trustees,” Deadline, December 2020. https://deadline.com/2020/12/donald-trump-kennedy-center-board-of-trustees-1234652321
4. Kennedy Center, “Trustees,” official trustee roster, accessed September 18, 2026. https://www.kennedy-center.org/about-us/leadership/trustees
5. Maggie Bullock, “The Ballet Influencer and Her MAGA Husband,” Harper’s Bazaar. Exact publication date not machine-extractable from the page; internal content places it in fall 2024. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/a62693290/ballet-beautiful-paul-dans-project-2025
6. Caitlin Byrd, “Paul Dans, ex-director of Project 2025, will challenge US Sen. Lindsey Graham in SC GOP primary,” Post and Courier, July 28, 2025. https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/paul-dans-project-2025-senate-candidate-gop/article_d46b0083-d1a4-44d6-b3c7-09a9e94682fe.html
7. ProPublica, reporting on Paul Dans and Project 2025 (referenced via Harper’s Bazaar citation). https://www.propublica.org/article/project-2025-trump-campaign-heritage-foundation-paul-dans
8. Wikipedia, “Paul Dans,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dans, accessed September 18, 2026.
9. Betsy Klein, “Kennedy Center board votes to rename it ‘Trump Kennedy Center,'” CNN, December 18, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/politics/trump-kennedy-center-name
10. CourtListener.com, docket for Beatty v. Trump, D.D.C., Case No. 1:25-cv-04480, filed December 22, 2025, Judge Christopher R. Cooper (docket ID 72069932; do not cite docket ID 72493354, an incomplete duplicate). Parties page confirms “MARY HELEN BOWERS” as a named defendant, represented by DOJ Civil Division counsel. Entries re-checked through No. 94 (October 2, 2026) on October 5, 2026. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/beatty-v-trump/
11. Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse (University of Michigan), “Case: Beatty v. Trump,” 1:25-cv-04480, accessed September 18, 2026. https://clearinghouse.net/case/47530
12. White House Press Release (via The American Presidency Project, UCSB), “President Trump Announces Appointments to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” February 13, 2025 (documenting the February 11-12, 2025 appointment batch; Bowers’s name does not appear in this release). https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/white-house-press-release-president-trump-announces-appointments-the-board-trustees-the
13. X (Twitter) post, @balletbeautiful (Mary Helen Bowers), expressing support for the Kennedy Center and noting her Trump appointment. Posted February 22, 2026 (UTC), per the timestamp encoded in the status ID; post not viewed directly. Documented here as protected speech providing context only. https://x.com/balletbeautiful/status/2025614190329659618
14. Ballet Beautiful, “About / Mary Helen Bowers,” accessed September 18, 2026. https://balletbeautiful.com/about/mary-helen-bowers
15. Cortney O’Brien, “Kennedy Center board member says families are ‘welcome’ again as gala breaks fundraising records,” Fox News, October 2, 2025 (interview at the NSO 95th Anniversary Gala, September 27, 2025). Documented as protected speech providing context only. https://www.foxnews.com/media/kennedy-center-board-member-says-families-welcome-again-gala-breaks-fundraising-records
16. Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480-CRC (D.D.C.), ECF No. 88-9, “Exhibit C (Preliminary Sep. 15 Board Minutes)” — Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, Special Meeting Minutes, September 15, 2026, filed by defendants September 18, 2026, 14 pp. Bowers’s attendance at p. 1 of the minutes; her remarks under “V. Board Discussion and Questions”; the vote under “VI. Board Action — Closure Resolution.” https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/88/9/beatty-v-trump/
17. Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480-CRC (D.D.C.), ECF No. 77, Memorandum Opinion and Order granting in part and denying in part Plaintiff’s emergency motion (ECF No. 67), Judge Christopher R. Cooper, September 15, 2026, 22 pp. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/77/beatty-v-trump/
18. Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480-CRC (D.D.C.), ECF No. 78, Plaintiff’s “Notice of Board Vote and Chairman Statement,” September 15, 2026. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/78/beatty-v-trump/
19. CourtListener.com, docket for Joyce Beatty v. Donald Trump, D.C. Cir. No. 26-5224, docketed June 12, 2026 (docket ID 73477160). Notice of appeal lists Mary Helen Bowers among the appellants; per curiam orders of June 12, 2026 (Order No. 2178670, administrative stay denied) and July 8, 2026 (Order No. 2182243, stay pending appeal denied), Judges Millett, Wilkins and Katsas. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73477160/joyce-beatty-v-donald-trump/
20. CourtListener.com, docket for Joyce Beatty v. Donald Trump, D.C. Cir. No. 26-5322, docketed September 16, 2026 (docket ID 74800363); appeal from the September 15, 2026 order. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74800363/joyce-beatty-v-donald-trump/
21. Steven Sloan and Hillel Italie, “Kennedy Center votes to shut down operations for 2 years and names a new president,” Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, March 16, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/kennedy-center-votes-to-shut-down-operations-for-2-years-and-names-a-new-president
22. Dareh Gregorian, Gary Grumbach and Owen Hayes, “Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board votes to close venue for renovations,” NBC News, September 15, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna597921
23. Holly Barker, “Kennedy Center Drops Trump’s Name After Failed Court Bid,” Bloomberg Law, June 12, 2026 (updated June 13, 2026). https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/kennedy-center-loses-bid-to-halt-order-to-remove-trumps-name
24. Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480-CRC (D.D.C.), ECF No. 68-3, Exhibit B — Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, preliminary minutes of the August 13, 2026 meeting, filed by defendants August 24, 2026, 20 pp. Bowers’s attendance at the head of the minutes; closure resolution and roll call under “VIII. Board Action” (ECF pp. 11-14); recognition resolution, counsel’s advice, and roll call under “X. Board Action — Resolution Recognizing the Chairman” (ECF pp. 15-19). Retrieved and read October 5, 2026. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/68/3/beatty-v-trump/
25. Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480-CRC (D.D.C.), ECF No. 68-1, Declaration of Joseph LaFauci (Vice President, Board Relations and Government Affairs), executed August 24, 2026, attesting to ECF Nos. 68-2 and 68-3. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/68/1/beatty-v-trump/
26. Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480-CRC (D.D.C.), ECF No. 68-2, Exhibit A — Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, approved minutes of the June 11, 2026 special meeting (as approved, one with amendment, on August 13, 2026), filed August 24, 2026; roll call on the stay-and-appeal resolution at ECF pp. 11-12. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/68/2/beatty-v-trump/

Last Updated: October 5, 2026