Thank you to everyone who made this year’s Dyslexic Edge Awards Breakfast such an amazing event!
What an inspiring morning!
70 people gathered on April 1st to celebrate the Dyslexic Edge Community and to hear about the remarkable life of our Dyslexic Edge Award Winner, Bill Milliken, as told by his inspiring wife Jean. All of us left refreshed and renewed to continue the mission to level the playing field for ALL students with dyslexia!
A BIG THANK YOU to our sponsors, Eleccion, GeoSisu, and Black Cape for once again supporting the Dyslexic Edge mission. Thank you to Brian Tarallo of Lizard Brain for his incredible real-time graphic representation of the event (seen above) and to Christian Rodas of Sidebox Media for recording the event(video coming soon!). To our amazing student ambassadors Emily, Callie, and Ellis for representing all of our students and to my own awesome kid Cameron, the one that inspired it all - thank you! Thank to the AHC team for joining us to celebrate our partnership! And to our guests we want to say just how grateful we are to all of you for coming out and being with us...we couldn't fulfill the mission without you!
This year’s Dyslexic Edge Award winner is: Bill Milliken!
William “Bill” Milliken, Founder and Vice Chairman of Communities In Schools, Inc., is one of the nation's foremost pioneers in the movement to give young people the help they need to graduate from high school and go on to rewarding lives.
Mr. Milliken's activism began in 1960 when he joined Young Life, an ecumenical youth organization. He helped initiate “street academies” for young people who had dropped out of school and wanted a chance to resume their education, as well as live-in programs for substance abusers and youth in need of shelter and support. His experiences led him to search for a comprehensive approach to helping young people. This search culminated in the 1970s with the development of a model program that repositioned existing community resources into schools — the Communities In Schools network, which Mr. Milliken led as President until May 2004.
Communities In Schools is the nation’s leading community-based organization helping students achieve in school and prepare for life. Currently, the organization directly serves more than 2 million students and their families each year in more than 3,460 schools and community sites in 27 states and the District of Columbia.
In 2013 Bill was awarded the GSV Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring individuals whose lives have had a profound impact in changing the world for good. He is also the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for National Service. Prior to that, he received the Visionary Ambassador’s Award from Usher’s New Look Foundation and the National Jefferson Award for Public Service, which is widely regarded as the “Nobel Prize” for outstanding community and public service.
Mr. Milliken serves on the boards of Leadership Foundations and Communities In Schools of Virginia. He also serves on the Board of Selectors of the Jefferson Awards, who choose the annual Jefferson Awards winners. He is an honorary member of Path North and is the author of four books: So Long, Sweet Jesus; Tough Love; The Last Dropout: Stop the Epidemic!; and From the Rearview Mirror: Reflecting on Connecting the Dots. Originally published in 2007, a revised edition of The Last Dropout was recently released in November 2022. Mr. Milliken received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2007 from Bard College.
Memories from the 2025 Dyslexic Edge Awards!
A big THANK YOU to all our sponsors!


