Deidre first realized her passion for working with children when she visited Camp Smile-a-Mile, a camp for children with cancer. She returned for a weeklong camp session as a counselor, an experience that motivated her to champion the cause of pediatric cancer as her platform issue when she began competing in the Miss Alabama Pageant.  

Continuing her volunteer work at The Children’s Hospital of Alabama, she started a high school volunteer program that enabled students to work one-on-one with cancer patients at Children’s Hospital. Realizing the importance of research funding in the fight against cancer, she created and designed a specialty license plate for the State of Alabama to raise funding for oncology research at Children’s Hospital. Deidre partnered with the Janie Sims Foundation to promote and implement the car tag, which became available statewide in 2005 and has since raised over $1 million for research.  

After winning the title of Miss America, Deidre took her advocacy to the national level, serving as the official spokesperson for CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation. Deidre has spoken to audiences around the country to raise awareness of pediatric cancer and has lobbied Congress for additional funds for pediatric oncology research.  

Deidre completed her tenure as Miss America in January 2006 and is currently in medical school at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.