Aisha Norris

Born and raised in the South Bronx, Executive Director Aisha Norris has spent over 25 years facilitating and implementing media and arts programs to improve the lives of vulnerable youth throughout NYC. In 2009 Ms. Norris founded DREAM! with a mission to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline by helping students, educators, families, and underserved communities acquire the practical skills and confidence they need to resolve conflicts creatively and productively, increasing students' engagement with learning and supporting academic and personal success. 

Before co-founding Dare to Revitalize Education thru Arts & Mediation (DREAM!) in 2009, Ms. Norris thrived at the Harlem Children’s Zone where she served at the award-winning arts and media literacy program “TRUCE” – first as a student, video production Teaching Artist, then as the Program Coordinator, managing the arts programs. Wanting to offer a TRUCE-like experience to as many youth communities as possible, in 2009 Aisha founded DREAM! to bring media arts and literacy programming to community-based organizations that lacked arts programming. Norris later became trained and certified in Conflict Resolution by the Alternatives to Violence Project; Peer Mediation by Creative Response to Conflict; and Restorative Practices by the International Institute for Restorative Practices. By 2015, DREAM!’s original media arts and literacy program model evolved, now using the arts as a vehicle for teaching peer mediation and restorative practices to other CBO’s, and in schools throughout New York City