ower is Giving | Leadership & Annual Reports

OUR FOUNDERS

Together, Dawn and Nadia have co-founded one of the Southeast’s only organizations offering culturally aligned, physician- and subject matter expert-led whole food, plant-based lifestyle education and wellness equity programming. Power is Giving serves all, but strategically focuses on communities disproportionately impacted by lifestyle-driven chronic illness; long neglected by policy, poor healthy food access, lack of evidence-based lifestyle education and burdened by systemic wellness inequities.

From youth programs like Eat Drink, Disrupt (EDD) Fit & Fuel Tennis to numerous adult-centered EDD programs, this mother-daughter duo activates intergenerational solutions through plat-based nutrition, movement, mentorship, and evidence-based truth. Their model reminds us: when we empower the most impacted, we move everyone toward collective health, equity and liberation.

Dawn Hilton-Williams

Co-Founder/Executive Director

Dawn Hilton-Williams is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Power is Giving, Inc., a Charlotte North Carolina–based nonprofit she’s led for more than a decade. Since shaping the organization’s early community work in 2011 and guiding its formal nonprofit operations beginning in 2016, Dawn has provided leadership grounded in governance, mission clarity and direct responsibility to the communities served.

Dawn leads organizational strategy partnerships grant stewardship board governance compliance and program leadership, guiding Power is Giving’s growth into a lifestyle education-centered organization with a clear focus on underserved youth, families and equitable access to optimal wellness equity.

Power is Giving’s Eat Drink Disrupt (EDD) program portfolio includes four free year-round programs that support the prevention arrest and reversal of lifestyle-driven chronic illnesses through movement, mentorship and evidence-informed, whole food, plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle education delivered in culturally aligned ways.

With more than a decade of municipal governance and public-sector management experience through her leadership roles with the City of Charlotte across departments including Solid Waste Services and Neighborhood Development, Dawn's public-sector foundation strengthens operational discipline, while reinforcing a community-first approach that treats wellness education as both a health strategy and equity strategy.

Dawn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Virginia State University, a Certification in Nonprofit Leadership Management from Duke University and certification as a Whole Food, Plant-Based nutrition professional through eCornell and the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.

Author of two physician-endorsed books, Dawn's also a columnist for Pride Magazine Charlotte, a longstanding bi-monthly African American business and lifestyle publication, where she writes about wellness equity and culturally grounded lifestyle education.

Her work has been recognized by organizations including Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation, United Way and regional arts and community institutions across the region.

Nadia Hilton Adams

Co-Founder & EDD Fit & Fuel Tennis Program Lead

Nadia Hilton-Adams is Co-Founder of Power is Giving and serves as Program Team Lead for the organization’s Eat Drink Disrupt (EDD) Fit & Fuel Tennis program.

A Charlotte native, she is a former elite National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I tennis athlete and a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, where she helped lead the women’s tennis team to two consecutive conference championship berths.

Hilton-Adams’ relationship with tennis was rigorous and sustained. She played year-round competitive tennis, competed as a varsity high school athlete, and contributed to the success of a 4A high school tennis program, balancing elite athletic training with strong academic performance. As a ranked junior USTA player, she developed early discipline, resilience, and leadership within highly competitive environments. These experiences later shaped her approach to youth development and mentorship.

Her commitment to community engagement began alongside her athletic journey. In 2011, at age 14, while still competing at a high level, Hilton-Adams began monthly onsite support by providing youth fitness and mentorship activities within community centers across Greenville, South Carolina, intentionally showing up in underserved neighborhoods where access to fitness, wellness and mentorship programs led by culturally aligned role models was limited.

Later that same year, her athletic excellence and service converged when she won Maria Sharapova’s “Use Your Instinct” national contest, earning national recognition through the Tennis Channel and raising $12,000 for Maria Sharapova’s charity through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Hilton-Adams brings curriculum-centered instructional tennis and youth fitness expertise to her leadership role, having served as a Nike Tennis Sports Camp instructor for two consecutive summers at Florida International University’s campus.

Today, as Program Lead for Fit & Fuel Tennis, she leads a team of former elite Division I athlete-coaches, delivering culturally resonant movement, mentorship, and plant-based nutrition education to help address childhood and juvenile obesity among youth ages 5–17.

In addition to her nonprofit leadership, Hilton-Adams works as a Business Manager with Mecklenburg County, bringing public-sector operational experience, accountability, and systems knowledge to her role.