Dawn has spent more than 30 years building trust across the systems meant to serve Kansas communities – corrections, behavioral health, nonprofit leadership, and philanthropy – and turning that trust into real, lasting change.

She began her career with the Kansas Department of Corrections, where she spent nearly two decades advancing from frontline Parole Officer to Supervisor. Along the way, she specialized in connecting high-risk parolees to mental health, addiction, and social service resources, and co-developed Sedgwick County’s Crisis Intervention Team, which has since trained more than 1,000 law enforcement, corrections, dispatch, and community service personnel.

That grounding in cross-sector collaboration carried into her nonprofit leadership work. As Executive Director of the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Coalition, she was part of an effort spanning hospitals, law enforcement, county and city government, behavioral health services and the business community, working to align mental health and addiction services across Sedgwick County. She went on to serve as President and CEO of HumanKind Ministries, where she helped repair fractured community relationships to move key efforts forward – work that helped support the launch of Wichita’s first 24/7/365 shelter for men and women and began addressing more than two decades of deferred maintenance on the organization’s housing structures.

Dawn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Administration of Justice, with a minor in Sociology, from Wichita State University, and an Associate of Arts in Criminal Justice from Cowley County Community College.

Today, Dawn serves as Business Development and Community Relations Manager at Conco Construction in Wichita, bringing the same relationship-driven approach that has defined her career to the private sector. Her leadership has stayed consistent: communicate clearly, be honest, and genuinely invest in the people she works with.