The $10,000 award was established at the Off-Broadway company's 2011 gala to honor Second Stage Theatre trustee Donna Perret Rosen in recognition of her long-standing commitment to young artists and new works. This year's award recipient was chosen by musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, actor Lonny Price and fellow lyricist Richard Maltby Jr.

The first recipient of the Donna Perret Rosen Award was composer-lyricist Adam Gwon in 2012.

Mills' musicals have been performed at New York City venues, including 59E59 and West End Theatre. His musicals include Illyria, Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge, The Flood and The Taxi Cabaret. He has supplied lyrics for the Off-Broadway show Iron Curtain (book by Susan DiLallo, music by Stephen Weiner), which ran in November 2011. He co-wrote The Flood with Carla Reichel, which was selected for the 2001 ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop. His show Marco Polo, written with composer Deborah Abramson, was selected for the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop in 2000, and both Mills and Abramson were chosen as 2000-01 Dramatist Guild Fellows.

In addition to the Donna Perret Rosen Award, Mills is the recipient of the 2011 Cole Porter Award, the 2010 Kleban Award for lyrics, the 2007 Fred Ebb Award for emerging songwriters, a 2006 Drama Desk nomination for his show The Pursuit of Persephone (Best Music and Best Orchestrations), the 2003 Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award from the ASCAP Foundation and a 2002 grant from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation.

Mills is currently writing lyrics for the Broadway-aimed musical The Honeymooners. For more information, visit 2ST.com.