03/05/2026
Thank you for seeing our Co-Founder and Executive Director!
🌹Cosmetics & Conversations Women’s HERstory Month — Day 1
Some women don’t just respond to life.They decide — and the room adjusts.
Today we honor Dedra Spears Johnson , Executive Director and Co-Founder of Heart to Hand, Inc..
Over 20 years ago, in the midst of an HIV crisis disproportionately impacting Black communities — especially women — Dedra and the late Sally Joseph envisioned a different kind of care.
Care rooted in culture.
Care rooted in love.
Care rooted in community.
Sitting at a kitchen table, they created a plan.
That plan became , Inc. — a grassroots nonprofit that has grown into a trusted leader in sexual health and HIV care throughout Prince George’s County and the greater DMV.
That kitchen table decision would ripple far beyond what they could see.
Years later, under Heart to Hand, Inc.’s umbrella, Jazmin Sutherlin proposed a retreat centering people of trans experience.
Dedra said yes.
She trusted the vision.
She created space.
She allowed something courageous to be built within the structure she had founded.
That retreat became the space where I facilitated a workshop titled As Others See Us.
Before the session began, Dedra walked in, noticed The Four Agreements on the table, and said, “That’s a good book.”
She stayed. She listened.
That moment planted a seed.
Years later, after rediscovering emails from that retreat while clearing my inbox, I ran into her at the Center For Black Equity / Black Le***an & Gay Pride Day Gala.
Divine order.
She said, “I’ve been following you. I need to get in your chair.”
Full circle.
And layered within that alignment? My former supervisor, Kenneth J. Pettigrew , from my days facilitating Noir Reflections, a retreat under US Helping US People Into Living Inc ., now serves as her Deputy Director. His co-sign — “I’ve managed him. I know what he can do.” — was confirmation meeting preparation.
And then she said yes again.
Yes to allowing her platform to serve as the launchpad for a concept called Cosmetics & Conversations.
Yes to giving space for a visionary to introduce something new to the world.
Yes to trusting innovation enough to let it breathe within the walls she had built.
Cosmetics & Conversations is my vision however Heart to Hand, Inc. became the first doorway.
Because she made room, it launched.
So today, we honor the ecosystem.
🌿 In honor of Sally Joseph, whose obedience at that kitchen table continues to ripple through community care.
And on this second day of Women’s HERstory Month,
we honor Dedra Spears Johnson — for the courage to say yes, the discipline to build, and the wisdom to make room.
Always with care,
Yarde Noir Beauty
