Welcome Jerry Hawkins – New Director of Equity Initiatives

We are pleased to welcome Jerry Hawkins as our new Director of Equity Initiatives. In this new role, Jerry will guide First Unitarian Church of Dallas through a two-year process of building a racial equity pillar within its new strategic plan, while preserving, interpreting, and activating local Dallas history as a pathway to understanding, building collective memory, and truth-telling and repair.

Rooted in the church’s Unitarian Universalist values of justice, compassion, and truth-seeking, the new Director of Equity Initiatives role bridges institutional transformation with community narrative change.

The creation of this role was made possible by funding from three family foundations earmarked for racial equity work.

About Jerry Hawkins

Jerry Hawkins is an artist, educator, historian, and storyteller dedicated to uncovering and amplifying untold narratives. As the Executive Producer, Researcher, and Narrator of the Emmy award winning 2024 PBS/KERA documentary Recovering The Stories: Exploring the History and Resilience in Dallas Communities, Jerry brings history to life with depth and purpose. A 2020-22 Presidential Leadership Scholar and co-founder of The Imagining Freedom Institute, he has spent years leading transformative initiatives, including serving as the Founding Executive Director of Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation. With a passion for justice, education, and cultural preservation, Jerry continues to shape conversations on race, place, and history.