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Jerry Hawkins is the Executive Director of Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (DTRHT), part of a national 14-place initiative by The W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Dallas TRHT’s mission is to create a radically inclusive city by addressing race and racism through narrative change, relationship building, and equitable policies and practices. Jerry has an undergrad degree in Early Childhood Education and Child and Family Services, and a Masters degree in Education and Inner-City Studies.
He is also a co-founder of The Imagining Freedom Institute (The IF Institute), a national research-based leadership group that helps organizations and institutions understand the historical context to contemporary issues of place, race, and racism, and co-principle of Young Leaders Strong City, a program for high school students that creates teen equity summits and councils to explore their experiences and identities. Jerry was formerly the Project Director of Bachman Lake Together for The Dallas Foundation and Zero To Five Funders Collaborative, an early childhood collective impact initiative in Dallas, and Director of Children’s Services at the Wilkinson Center in East Dallas/Southeast Dallas.
Hawkins is a current 2020-21 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a recent Leadership Arts Institute Fellow with the Business Council for the Arts, a Dallas County Historical Commission Member, and sits on Dallas ISD’s Trustee-appointed Racial Equity Advisory Council and The Education Trust/ERS Resource Equity Working Group for Dallas ISD, and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas/PolicyLink/National Fund for Workforce Solutions ‘Pathways to Work’ Workforce Equity Advisory Council. Jerry also serves on the boards of Leadership ISD, Deep Vellum, AccessH2O, and Teaching Trust. While living in Chicago, Jerry worked for Chicago Urban League and Chicago Public Schools. Jerry and his three children, aged 19, 17, and 12, live in Dallas, TX.
