As a therapist, attorney, author, and CEO of Make A Way Media, Deedee Cummings is passionate about passing down the life lessons that were instilled in her mother, Andrea Mast Pecchioni, who passed away in 2003 from breast cancer. All eleven of Cummings' diverse picture books, poetry books, and workbooks are not only fun for kids and adults to read, they also work to teach coping skills, reinforce the universal message of love, encourage mindfulness, and facilitate inclusion for all.In her award-winning 2019 picture book, This Is the Earth, Cummings shares a message of peace, love, respect, compassion, inclusion and how the Earth is home to all of us. Her newest release, In the Nick of Time (November 2019) is the story of a little brown boy who saves Christmas.Cummings has spent more than two decades working within the family therapy and social services field. Much of her writing draws from her experiences of working with kids in therapeutic foster care. As a result, her catalogs of published books for kids are filled with positive, hopeful messages even when faced with dire times. Using therapeutic techniques in her stories to teach coping skills, Cummings also strives to lessen the stigma that some people feel when it comes to receiving mental health assistance.

Cummings is also the founder and creator of the Louisville Book Festival; a non-profit, literacy-based conference and book fair that will occur in Louisville, Kentucky on October 23rd and 24th, 2020. This event is designed to celebrate and grow the vibrant culture and community of Louisville while inspiring a love of reading for generations to come.