Dee Whitfield - Bio

Doreen “Dee” C. Whitfield always knew she would be an artist in the creative sense from the young age of seven. Even as she was taking an unlikely path to that destination. Dee’s parents were educators who exposed their children to the fine arts and travel at an early age.  Dee was never without a book, crayons or pencil and paper.  She began reading at four years old,  Writing her first play at seven.  She began piano lessons at the age of six playing in solo recitals. 

Dee enjoyed and excelled in spelling bees and writing contest.   A native of Florida, Dee first left Jacksonville and attended Tallahassee Community College in pursuit of an Associate Degree intending to pursue a Bachelors degree in pharmacy at Florida A&M University.  Uneventful challenges occurred and she relocated back to Jacksonville, and landed a part-time radio announcer position at WJAX.  Working the midnight to six Jazz drive.  From that point on Dee worked at several CBS affiliated television stations in Orlando, Jacksonville, and West Palm Beach in Marketing, Sales and Radio; Writing commercial spots and doing voice-overs in the industry became addictive.  Her passion for music and writing began to develop. She returned to school receiving her degree in Business and found herself in a writing course for teachers in Duval County Public Schools. 

Dee has spent fourteen years in Education.  Earning the 2004 Teacher of the Year Award, for Grand Park Career School.  She began to write poetry after a workshop with JAXWRITES.  Encouraged by Professor Mary Baron; Director of JAXWRITES M.A. Program at the University of North Florida. Dee pursued her M.A. Degree at the University of North Florida. 

Dee never lost the dream to write and when the “bug” hit her again in 1997, she answered the call.  Dee wrote a book of poetry Flavors of Life, originally published by (Neighborhoodpress, 2001) and Open Mic a collaboration of over forty  Northeast Florida poets (Neighborhoodpress 2003). “I started writing Sistahs So Saved in 2002.   I wanted to write a book as entertaining as any book on the market, put God first, and have the book be a page-turner. I wasn’t writing to any particular genre. I just wanted to write about people I knew with a dose of laughter and characters I could relate to.” Sistahs So Saved released August 4th 2008.