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.
A composer, vocalist, vocal arts teacher, coach and educational consultant, she was recently selected as the Newark Arts Council’s Vocal Music Artist-in-Residency for Newark Public Schools.
Dee helped to establish Youth Arts at the Cathedral in September of 2007. Since that time, some of Youth Arts’ special programming has included:
Fundraising Concert with the North Jersey Philharmonic Glee Club and noted historian Clement Alexander Price.
Participation in the “National Children’s Sabbath” a nationwide, interfaith celebration event designed and sponsored by the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman.
“Jazz on the Portico” an eight-week SummerArts Mentoring Project highlighted by master classes and performances with legendary saxophonist Bill Phipps of the Newark Jazz Elders.
Dee is developing a series of video documentaries promoting the awareness and prevention of domestic violence and sexual abuse. In partnership with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, as a member of the NJPAC Ministers’ Advisory Council, she previewed some of these videos for “Breaking The Cycle: An Awareness Forum” based on the musical Oprah Winfrey presents The Color Purple.
