Derek Dabkoski is a native of San Francisco and an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been shown in festivals that include the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, Indie Memphis, the Seattle Film Festival and the Portland Film Festival. He completed his undergraduate degree from NYU despite a debilitating physical attack that left him permanently physically disabled. He achieved his MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in film and television production, where he pursued his dream of directing. With a passion for telling stories about the underserved disabled community of which he is a part, his previous feature documentary, Derek Changes His Mind, followed his participation in a years-long study of the effects of stem cell therapy to treat his traumatic brain injury.