Dr. Florita Bell Griffin is an Urban Planner, Urban and Regional Scientist, Author, Doll Designer, Creative Director, and filmmaker, concerned with analytical approaches to problems that are specifically urban, rural and regional in nature.

Functional illiteracy in youth, and its link to the economic stability of communities is an urban, rural and regional problem that deeply concerns her. She believes that improving literacy is the way forward for communities who want to boost their local economy, and that investing in creative literacy vehicles today is necessary for building a solid and secure future tomorrow.

A native North Carolinian, Dr. Griffin grew up in Wadesboro, and graduated from Bowman Sr. High School 79'. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications/Broadcasting and Cinema from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro 83', and both a Master of Urban Planning 89' and Doctorate of Philosophy in Urban and Regional Science 93' from Texas A&M University.

She is the Creative Director at ARC Communications, LLC., Executive Producer of ARC's Little Flower® Edutainment Brand, and Designer of Little Flower Dolls®.

In 2016, Dr. Griffin received the Zora Neale Hurston Award, an annual achievement award administered by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association and sponsored by HarperCollins Publishers. The award was given in recognition of her outstanding leadership and tireless efforts in promoting literacy and African American literature through the creation of the Little Flower® literacy project.

The Little Flower® project works to improve youth literacy, self-esteem, and imagination through the use of art, artistic media, and African American literature (storytelling). Her book, The Little Flower Vignettes – Story Behind The Story (2014), shares the non-fictional back-story that inspired the Little Flower® Project.