Daphne Gregory-Thomas is widely praised as a pioneer in the development of innovative educational and career related programs for marginalized and neurodivergent students. She and her students were featured in a documentary called Learning For Life: Kids and Learning Differences, produced and directed by academy award winning documentarian Barbara Koppel. They were also highlighted in several New Jersey Education Association After School Classroom Closeup specials, one winning a regional Emmy for social causes. She has won many awards and recognitions on the local, state and national level, including testifying with her students before a Joint Committee of Congress for the re-authorization of IDEA funding.  Her work has been recognized in various media publications, academic journals and books, including  Dr. Jed Baker’s  Preparing for Life, and Gerston and Silva’s Self Advocacy.

After writing many school reports, she discovered her new writing heartbeat in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Visible Ink Writing Program as an essayist and storyteller.  Her essays have been published in five Visible Ink Anthologies, Wisdom and Words, USM’s Reflections Literary Journals, WritersRead WELL SAID WELL READ anthology celebrating the best 62 Writers Read essays of the decade,  and WritersRead BODY LANGUAGE: TRUE STORIES OF ILLNESS, RECOVERY, AND DISCOVERY anthology. She is the winner of the 2024 Joy of the Pen Creative Non-Fiction Award. Her essays have been performed in NYC at MSK Visible Ink showcases and WritersRead storytelling events, Yarmouth Maine Historical Society’s Rooted Narratives event, Mechanics Hall Casco Bay Writers Story Salon, and various open mic events throughout Maine. She now resides in Kennebunk, Maine, and is an active member of Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Mechanics Hall Casco Bay Writers Group, and the Wisdom & Words Writers platform.   She is currently working on a memoir about her years in education, fighting side-by-side with her neurodivergent students for new programs that changed lives and laws.    

Rooted Narratives: Power of Place, Yarmouth Historical Society Storytelling Event