Cheryl Dickerson

Born in Washington, DC, Ms Dickerson spent her childhood in Phila., PA. She attended Cheyney State College where she studied Sociology. Ms Dickerson consistently speaks at music seminars and conferences. She served a term as Vice President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Recording Arts and Science (NARAS); she is a past Grammy Host Committee member and has served on several music industry advisory boards. Her professional affiliations include: NARAS, National Association of Female Executives, AIMP, NAACP and on the board of the California Copyright Conference (14 yrs) where she has served as Secretary, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer. Cheryl Dickerson is co-founder and executive producer of Music Knowledge Institute, a music resource dedicated to empowering individuals with the information necessary to make knowledgeable decisions about their music career. This institute was created to educate and motivate those by providing the tools needed to help meet their objectives, such as one-on-one mentoring, workshops, seminars and music sessions. In addition, Ms. Dickerson consults artists, producers and independent labels, such as 55 Entertainment owned by Willie McGinest and JJR Entertainment owned by the legendary Jerry Rice and most recently, Birmingham Entertainment. Ms Dickerson has also formed Top Floor Entertainment, a company devoted to assisting songwriters and producers in placing music, handling publishing issues, exploiting catalogue, setting up collaborations and general consulting. Previously, Ms Dickerson held the title of Senior Director/Writer-Publisher Relations at BMI in Los Angeles, where she was responsible for affiliating songwriters and publishers and guiding them in furthering their careers, also creating and producing workshops and showcases. For several years she produced the successful "Acoustic in Black" monthly showcase in Hollywood and she co-produced the Urban Focus 2-day conference held in Hollywood at the Musicians Institute. At BMI, she affiliated such writers as Snoop Dogg, Daz, Black Eye Peas, Christina Milian, Teena Marie and Macy Gray. She has also produced showcases across the country for the music publication, Black Renaissance Exclusive (BRE). From 1989 to 1994, Ms Dickerson held the position of Vice President of Artists and Repertoire at Epic/Sony Music, securing songs and producers, overseeing budgets, coordinating recording schedules for such acts as Teena Marie, Luther Vandross, Shabba Ranks, MC Eiht and Compton's Most Wanted. She also acted as a liaison between Sony and the subsidiary labels owned by Tracey Edmonds, John Singleton and Clarence Avant. Prior to that, Ms Dickerson was Senior Director of Artists and Repertoire at MCA Records working closely with such acts as New Edition, Bobby Brown, Patti La Belle, Gladys Knight, Heavy D, Teddy Riley, Pebbles and Stephanie Mills. In this capacity, she was the first A&R person to utilize the talents of Dallas Austin and the production team, L A (Reid) & Babyface. She began her career as A&R coordinator at Capitol Records working with acts as Frankie Beverly and Maze, A Taste of Honey, Ronnie Laws, Freddie Jackson and George Clinton.