Awards and Honors Overview

Research/Arts-based

2025

• Finalist for the Rapport Festival, Black Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
• Finalist for the Love Peace and Freedom Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
• Finalist for the International Black & Diversity Film Festival (IBDFF), Official Selection for Pedigree

2024

• Finalist for the Under Our Skin Festival: Int’l Festival on Human Rights, Official Selection for Pedigree 
• Finalist for the Africa International Human Rights Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
• Finalist for the Minority Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
  • Winner for Best Actress
• Finalist for the San Diego Independent Filmmaker’s Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
• Finalist for the Freedom Film Festival International, Official Selection for Pedigree
• Finalist for United We Heal Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
• The Workshop Theater (NYC), Winter Intensive Official Selection for The Request (or Prison Fan Fiction)
• Finalist for OHC Criminal Justice Short Film Fest, Official Selection for Pedigree 
• Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region IV Achievement in Directing for Blood at the Root
• Finalist for 2024 Virginia Black Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree

2023

• 2023 Emmy Award for Societal Concerns (Short Form Content), National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and WHRO Public Media for Exodus: Homecoming
• Finalist for 2023 Activists Without Borders Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree 
  • Winner for Social Impact Award
• Finalist for 2023 Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film, Official Selection for Pedigree
• Finalist for 2023 Micheaux Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
• Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region IV Achievement in Directing for Tag! You’re It!
• Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective, 2023 Three Six Nine Monologue and Short Play Festival, Official Selection for How to Tie a Tie
• 12th DMV International Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree 
• Finalist for 2023 Monarch Short-Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
  • Winner for Best Alumni Short-Film
• Finalist for 2023 Seven Cities Showcase of Hampton Roads, Official Selection for Pedigree
  • Winner for Best Actress
• Finalist for AudPop 5th Race to Justice Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree 

2022

• Finalist for 11th International Social Change Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree
  • Winner for Best Woman Director 
• The Ivoryton Playhouse, Women Playwrights Festival 2022, Official Selection for How to Tie a Tie
• The Heritage Ensemble Theatre Company, 2022 Summer Staged Reading Series, Official Selection for The Amazing Jason and How to Tie a Tie
• Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region IV Achievement in Directing for Intimate Apparel
• Finalist for 2022 James River Short Film Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree 

2021

• Finalist for 2021 National 'The Breath Project' Festival, Official Selection for Pedigree  
• Red Clay Play, Inaugural Southern Black Playwrights Forum 2021: MOJOAA Performing Arts Company, Official Selection for How to Tie a Tie

2020

• Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award in Post- Graduate Research Accomplishment Recipient, University of Georgia
• Firecracker Productions, 5 Minute Play Virtual Project, Houston, TX. 1st Official Selection for Pedigree

2019

• Fade to Black Play Fest, 10 Minute Play Competition 2019, Official Selection for The Amazing Jason

2018

• Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, National Short Play Award, Honorable Mention for How to Tie a Tie
• Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region IV, National John L. Caubel Short Play Award, 1st Place Winner for How to Tie a Tie
• Performance Studies Institute at Northwestern University: Narrative, Beauty, and Improvisation, nationally selected participant/performer

2021 African American Creative Community Series (AACCS), Norfolk Public Library, Recipient 

2020 Old Dominion University, John R. Broderick Diversity Champion Award, Recipient

2020 Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award in Post- Graduate Research Accomplishment

Recipient, University of Georgia

2018  August Staub Graduate Student Award in Theatre, Recipient 

2018 Graduate Emerging Leader, University of Georgia

GRANTS/PROJECTS AWARDED

Total dollar amounts withheld from CV, can be provided (if requested)

2025 Virginia Tech, New Faculty Mentor Grant

(Focus: Mentorship with Applied Theatre field experts and practitioners)

2024 4-VA @JMU  Collaborative Research Grant Award 

Lead External Collaborator, Co-Research Contributor [w/ Dr. Rachel Rhoades]

(Focus: Utilizing Theatre for Equity & Community Development—Newcomers Translate Experiential Knowledge through Embodied Storytelling)

2024 Center for Artistic Activism (C4AA) Faculty Fellowship

(Focus: Unstoppable Voters, nonpartisan voting efforts on collegiate campuses)

2023  National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute Faculty Fellow grant

(Focus: Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Devised Theatre

The In[HEIR]itence Project Exodus: Homecoming local artist project funding

(Proj: StoryTell(HER) Summit 2023: Her Voice, Her Narrative & Her Vision)

2021  ODU Fall 2021 Themester: Arts and Social Justice project funding

(Proj: Dialoguing with our Bodies, an Exploration of Performance Activism)

2020 Association for Theatre Movement Educators (ATME) Innovation Fellowship, 

(Proj. Funding: Solo piece- Being B.A.D. and the Performance of Redemption), matched

2018 Emerging Leaders Independent Project Funding, Principal Investigator

(Project Funding: G.L.A.M: Girls Leadership and Mentors of Athens)

2016 Arts in Community Grant, Principal Investigator

(Presentation: Atlanta Fringe Festival)

Sylvia Pannell Travel Grant, Principal Investigator

(Presentation: Atlanta Fringe Festival)

2014-2015 American Honda Foundation Grant, Assisted.

(Project Funding: EUREKA! S.T.E.M-based program, Girls Inc. of the Greater Peninsula)