K Media Producer and Instructor Dhera Strauss has been awarded the 2014 Community Medal of Arts from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. Dhera is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and producer, in addition to her duties as an instructor in the K Department of Art and Art History, where she instructs students through her skills and by example.

“I love teaching,” she told a Kalamazoo Gazette reporter in 2010. “The kids have this energy and motivation, and I get to impart my love of filmmaking.”

Many people in Kalamazoo and beyond also know Dhera from her award-winning documentaries including Kitchen Conversations (a group of professional women in Kalamazoo invite viewers into their kitchens, where each prepares a recipe that reminds her of her family) and Donut Day: 24 Hours at Sweetwater’s (the character and characters of a 24-hour Kalamazoo doughnut shop).

And many know her as the wife of Kalamazoo College Professor of History, Emeritus David Strauss.

Congrats, Dhera!