{"id":399409,"date":"2026-08-06T16:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/399409\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:46:18","slug":"houstons-philanthropist-lawyer-almost-became-a-professional-dancer-best-dressed-erica-littlejohn-burnettes-incredible-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/399409\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston&#8217;s Philanthropist Lawyer Almost Became a Professional Dancer \u2014 Best Dressed Erica Littlejohn Burnette&#8217;s Incredible Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The PaperCity Philanthropy in Fashion Houston Best Dressed honorees represent a cross section of backgrounds, interests and ages with two unifying characteristics. Each has an altruistic interest in contributing to the Bayou City and each has a defining style. The philanthropic femmes will be saluted on September 15 at a Post Oak Hotel luncheon benefiting March of Dimes.<\/p>\n<p>In this special series, we profile each of the 2026 Houston Best Dressed honorees leading up to the PaperCity Philanthropy in Fashion Houston Best Dressed Luncheon &amp; Neiman Marcus Fashion Presentation. Next up: Erica Littlejohn Burnette, a first-time honoree.<\/p>\n<p>Due to her unwavering commitment to positive community impact and the causes that she supports Burnette\u2019s 11-year-old son Theo often quips that his mother has no hobbies, she has philanthropies.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, this Harvard Law School graduate serves on the board of the national nonprofit The Common Market and devotes her philanthropic energies to the boards of The Health Museum and the Halo House Foundation, as well as to the United Negro College Fund, and Howard University where she earned her degree in journalism.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1960\" class=\"wp-image-742524 size-full img-responsive \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/73991023-BC54-4F47-B068-9A51C04F3A72-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Erica Littlejohn Burnette, Hailey Burnette\"  \/>Erica Littlejohn Burnette and daughter Hailey volunteering for the Howard University Parent Advisory Council, of which Erica is vice-chair.<\/p>\n<p>Burnette also has a full-time career as chief administrative officer and general counsel for <a href=\"https:\/\/ascentemc.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ascent Emergency Medical Center.\u00a0<\/a>Interestingly, her husband Dr. Robert E. Burnette is a certified emergency medicine physician. They share four children aged 26 to 11.<\/p>\n<p>Memorable quote: Matthew 9:38\/Luke 10:2 \u201cThe harvest is great, but the laborers are few.\u201d Often repeated to Littlejohn by her father as a constant reminder to \u201cGet busy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1440\" class=\"wp-image-742522 size-full img-responsive \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4bd19d16-d6ba-479c-a249-4b6d81d1ead8.jpg.webp\" alt=\"Sophia Burnette, Erica Littlejohn Burnette\"  \/>Sophia Burnette, Erica Littlejohn Burnette at the Health Museum Gala, which she chaired, held at Hotel ZaZa. (Photo by Daniel Ortiz)<br \/>\nThe Style Survey<\/p>\n<p>Favorite designers: <a href=\"https:\/\/christiebrownonline.com\/?srsltid=AfmBOoqOw6dbd0y7v9pxY8yg4pwBTgss6G4oWcvwkZm727zm6UgrY5KT\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christie Brown<\/a>, Carolina Herrera, Tracey Reese, <a href=\"https:\/\/brothervellies.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brother Vellies<\/a> shoes and handbags<\/p>\n<p>Style icons: Her mother Gail Hodge Littlejohn, Edna Ngu, Amal Clooney, Houston Best Dressed Hall of Fame honoree Merele Yarborough.<\/p>\n<p>Your go-to outfit: A bold colored pant suit with an Oxford that I can walk in all day or a colorful casual dress sandals that I can walk in all day<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"2400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-727444 img-responsive \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-Best-Dressed.199-1.jpg\" alt=\"2026 Best Dressed.199 (1)\"  \/>Dr. Robert Burnette &amp; Erica Littlejohn Burnette at the PaperCity Philanthropy in Fashion Best Dressed announcement party.<\/p>\n<p>Favorite beauty product: Dr. Simone Stalling\u2019s mineral sunscreen and <a href=\"https:\/\/unclefunkysdaughter.com\/hair-care.html?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=9317191592&amp;gbraid=0AAAAADCvrfCXgbNEXAOiHQiDM9EBfVGmM&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIndnW0NzrlQMVQSzUAR12QyTcEAAYAiAAEgJhUfD_BwE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Uncle Funky\u2019s Daughter Curly Magic<\/a> for my hair<\/p>\n<p>What is the one accessory you cannot live without: A sun visor<\/p>\n<p>Books on your coffee table: Overdue school library books. (We read a lot but don\u2019t do coffee table books.)<\/p>\n<p>Travel destination that inspires: The Sarah Desert<\/p>\n<p>Favorite hotel in the world: <a href=\"https:\/\/hotel-benin-maison-rouge-cotonou.com\/en\/hotel-cotonou-benin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maison Rouge<\/a> in Cotonou, Benin; Semilla Verde in Ecuador<\/p>\n<p>Something that few people know about you: I trained for four years with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company\u2019s second company DCDC2 and considered becoming a professional dancer.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets for the PaperCity Philanthropy in Fashion Best Dressed Luncheon and Neiman Marcus Fashion Presentation benefiting March of Dimes are available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marchofdimes.org\/events\/Event.aspx?eventId=23220\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PaperCity Philanthropy in Fashion Houston Best Dressed honorees represent a cross section of backgrounds, interests and ages&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-399409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}