Daily Inspiration: Meet Dawn Henderson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dawn Henderson.

Hi Dawn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
My passion and commitment to identifying and working with others to build environments for Black and Brown children to thrive stems from my adolescence. In 9th grade, I experienced the violent passing of my mother and two younger sisters on New Year’s Day, and following that experience, the removal of my sister and brother from our home, the birth of a niece I would soon come to help raise, and the incarceration of my brother. I found myself with very little support from my home on how to process trauma and how to deal with deep grief. However, I did find support from peers in school, teachers, and a neighbor. My peers at school and the friendships I began to build often created spaces for me to grieve, to share my deepest emotions and family challenges. Most of the teachers I had at school allowed me to feel like I was seen and allowed me to feel like I was brilliant and talented. They encouraged me and advocated for my presence in academically challenging courses and pre-college programs. My neighbor became interested in my success in high school and dedicated a significant portion of her time to helping me with identifying colleges, completing the FAFSA, and applying to colleges. I held this memory of my community and the adults and peers in my life who were essential to my own journey of success in school and my development as a young person and a Black-bodied girl. Thus, from my first career to teaching to my long-standing research and work with schools, communities, and families, are entangled in those memories from my youth and the desire to create those memories, those relationships and identify those adults and peers in the lives of other young people. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My journey from adolescence to adulthood has not been “no crystal stairs.” Before age 15, I had moved around more than 11 times, went to more than 8 schools, and lived with more than three people who were not my biological parents. I was once arrested in middle school after having a fight in the hallways, and I remember being expelled and the school’s desire to place me into a juvenile detention facility. I lost my mother and siblings to a car crash; still, to this day, I struggling with mourning their loss. These disruptions to my child and youthhood often meant that relationships were difficult to build and sustain, that security and safety were limited, and that trusting adults was difficult. In high school, I did not have much support from my home or a parent who was highly involved in my academic learning, and thus, I found that I had to “figure things out” with very few resources and with limited support from the adults in my life. In parallel, as the middle child and they only child who graduated from high school, I found myself trying to “prove” I was worthy of recognition, of love, and protection. This need to prove myself was definitely a significant motivator behind my graduating from college, getting two master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I currently serve as the Director of Research, Power Building for a nonprofit in Durham, NC (Village of Wisdom), where I have lead our community-driven approach to research, design, and educational change. My community knows me as a Community Psychologist and that means my peers see me as someone who is healing-centered and committed to building the environments for Black and Brown youth, their families, and communities to thrive. In my work at Village of Wisdom, I have worked in partnership with Black families and parents to lead community assessments, to design dissemination plans, to develop and validate strategies for learning, to co-author publications and academic presentations. The belief that knowledge is centered on our lived experiences and that science, research, and all these other fields have always been about the collective experience of Black people in the world is what inspires me to cultivate these beliefs in our families and parents. I experience the greatest pride when our parents are telling us they are researchers when we get to increase the income they bring into their households when they express how they have changed as an individual and parent. I experience the greatest pride when educators and researchers are referencing the work of our Black parents and when they see value in the knowledge shared by them; that is a healing-centered lens. My healing-centered lens sets me apart from others because it means I am focused on the intrapersonal (the inner work I need) and believe that when I work on my inner self then I can be more responsive and support the relationships and organizations around me to also embrace and healing-centered lens. I believe we all need healing from such -isms like racism, classism, sexism; you name them; by healing ourselves, then we can heal the world. 

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I have so many beautiful and favorite childhood memories; the one I bring forward in this moment was sitting in the living room with my mother and siblings and planning how we would create a recording and narration of an Agatha Christie book. My mother was an avid fan of Agatha Christie, and one day she decided that we should create a tape recording of the book, with narration, sound effects, everything. She asked us what did we need to create this recording and invited us to be creative and plan out this activity; we were between 9 and 10 years of age. We used a spray bottle of water and foil to emulate the sound of rain, old shoes to simulate someone walking, and cardboard boxes and kitchen spoons for thunder. My mother did the primary narration and voiceovers while we created the background sound. It was a moment where we smiled wide at each other, we laughed, and when we felt so inspired by my mother’s ingenuity and her ability to push us into our creative realms. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cheercollaborative.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-x-henderson-08452218/
• Twitter: @ProfessorXon