Sundial Brands awarded fashion icon, entrepreneur and philanthropist Tina Knowles Lawson with its first Community Commerce Impact Award, presented by SheaMoisture. Sundial’s founder/CEO Richelieu Dennis gave the award to Lawson during the Variety Power of Women Luncheon at Cipriani Midtown in New York City.
  
Lawson was among six other honorees recognized for dedicating their time and energy to philanthropic and community efforts that improve the world. The 2017 Power of Women honorees included Jessica Chastain, Chelsea Clinton, Gayle King, Blake Lively, Audra McDonald and Shari Redstone.

Lawson, aka “Miss Tina,” along with Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland, her family, and St. John’s Church, have built and established a center for young people known as The Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth located in Houston, Texas. The Knowles family also established The Survivor Foundation in 2005; and along with Beyonce, established the the Beyoncé Cosmetology Center at Phoenix House in New York City in 2010.

Her latest endeavor, along with her husband Richard Lawson, is the launch of the non-profit WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Theater Center in Los Angeles, which Sundial Brands has partnered with to help develop impactful community programming. 

Dennis says Lawson was chosen for this award because she is “a successful entrepreneur, a tireless philanthropist, and a humble humanitarian.” He continued to explain, “…this is a woman who uses her platform, her businesses, her resources and her voice to create organizations that drive positive change for those in need…it seems only fitting that our paths would not only cross – but connect – in service to others to ensure we leave this world a better place than we found it.”

Lawson said, “…thank you Sundial…From empowering women to be entrepreneurs in Africa or constantly working in the communities that truly need it, the generosity and personal commitment of the owners of this company to make a difference are exceptional.”