Jerry Hawkins is a talented educational consultant, advocate and executive director dedicated to social justice and equity. With years of experience in the field, Hawkins has served in various positions, including project director at the Bachman Lake Together and Zero to Five Funders Collaborative, male involvement specialist and parenting facilitator for the Chicago Urban League, and director of children's services at the Wilkinson Center. He is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Leadership Arts Institute Fellow by the Business Council for the Arts, and a community fellow at Leadership ISD, to name a few of his many achievements. Hawkins has an excellent educational background, including a B.S. in early childhood education and child & family services from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he studied African cultural continuities of the people of Central America. He also earned his M.A. in education from Northeastern Illinois University’s Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, where he was awarded a Graduate Assistantship from NEIU’s Graduate School and Ronald Williams Library. Jerry Hawkins is currently the Executive Director of Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation and a co-founder of The Imagining Freedom Institute, offering his expertise and knowledge to make a positive impact on his community.