Dr. Dawn X. Henderson holds a PhD in Applied Social and Community Psychology and serves as the Director of Participatory Research with Village of Wisdom and Co-Director with the Collective Health and Education Equity Research (CHEER) Collaborative. She has a vision to create dream cultivators and implementers across the nation and world so that Black and Brown children can thrive in at home and school learning environments. Prior to joining Village of Wisdom, she was the Project Director of Research and Evaluation at the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation at Duke University and her other professional pursuits include working as a Research Associate at UNC at Chapel Hill, an Associate Professor at North Carolina A&T State University and Assistant Professor at Winston-Salem State University. She spent the majority of her time in higher education trying to strengthen community-university connections and building the capacity of undergraduate students to engage in and lead action research. Her research spans more than a decade, a recipient of numerous fellowships and author of more than 20+ peer-reviewed pieces and book chapters that address the learning conditions and psychosocial environments young people need to thrive and persist across their educational dreams.