Dawn joined Vancouver Public Library in 1993 as a children's librarian and has held various positions including multicultural coordinator, branch head and area manager. She joined the management team in 2007. In 2012 she was the project manager for the information services review in which she successfully transformed the Central Library’s information services from a multi-department subject based model to a fully integrated, centralized service.

Dawn is an adjunct faculty member at the iSchool at the University of British Columbia, teaching human resource management, and is an active member of the school’s alumni executive. Dawn currently sits on Langara College’s Library & Information Technology Program Advisory Committee and is a former member of the iSchool Admissions Committee. Dawn is a member of the Canadian and British Columbia Library Associations and the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association.

Dawn received a master of library science from the University of British Columbia in 1993.