Dee is committed to arts education. For almost three decades, she has designed, sponsored and endorsed music education programs for children. A Newark native, she studied voice with John Eric Floreen at Rutgers University, Newark, and with Ednah Holt and Diane Greene at the Jazzmobile in Harlem, NY.
She developed early childhood learning models at the Smart Cookie Learning Center in East Orange and at the South Orange/ Maplewood After School Program. She instituted a high school choral program at the Bronx (NY) Academy of Letters. She was twice selected as Lead Artist for Vocal Performance (teaching at Montclair High and at Seton Hall University) in the Studioworks youth arts apprenticeship programs sponsored by Communities in the Schools of NJ. She is a founding member of Edutopia, The Magazine of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. In 2009, she helped the Newark Arts Council develop a new Vocal Music Artist-in-Residency for Newark Public Schools. Dee is a composer and vocalist as well as vocal arts teacher and educational consultant.She is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the New York Songwriters’ Circle and many other arts organizations. She composes and arranges for the North Jersey Philharmonic Glee Club. She is an alumnus of the Rutgers University Chorale and of the Essex Chorale.She is Founding Director of the IMANIAWomen's Chorus.
