Diedre Nyota Dawkins is a 2003 N.Y.C. Bessie Award winner for outstanding dance performance and a 2016 recipient of the President Obama Lifetime Achievement Award for National and Community Service. She is also the 2020 Evidence Award recipient for Artistic Expression with the theme “Sistas Prepared, Positioned and Pivotal for Such a Time as This”. She is the founder and director of “Dance is Healing” a mentorship program for middle school girls and was voted 2016 Teacher of the Year at ConneXions: A Community Based Arts School. Diedre graduated from The N.Y.C. High School of the Performing Arts and received her B.F.A. in dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and her M.F.A. in choreography and performance from The University of Maryland College Park.