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Deborah Frazier, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and the University of Memphis, is co-founder of Blues City Cultural Center (BCCC), a 45-year-old arts organization with the mission: Arts for a Better Way of Life. She received the 2012 Gyneka Award from the International Women’s Theater Festival and, along with her husband Levi Frazier, Jr., the Tennessee Governor’s Award for the Arts for BCCC’s outstanding work in the performing arts. Her play Knight Songs, about acclaimed poet Etheridge Knight, toured Tennessee prisons through a grant from the Tennessee Humanities. Deborah is an adjunct instructor of Communications and Theater at Southwest Tennessee Community College. She has developed innovative arts-based social programs at BCCC, including: Peace in the House (youth violence prevention), Seek to Serve (servant leadership in affordable housing communities), Hope Day Zone (self-esteem for homeless women), and Sew Much Love (entrepreneurship for homeless women). She has presented nationally at conferences such as Neighborhoods USA and the Tennessee Arts Commission, with topics including creative placemaking, arts and homelessness, and community engagement. Selected presentations include “Creative Placemaking in the Margins” (Omaha, 2017), “Personal Stories as a Human-Centered Approach to Evaluation” (Murfreesboro, 2016), and “How to Be a Good Neighbor” (Federal Reserve Bank, Memphis, 2015). Deborah and Levi have three children, four grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.