Dawn’s geology education emphasized environmental geology and hydrogeology.  She worked in the private sector doing environmental consulting work, including field work, sampling soil and groundwater, and writing reports. She worked with multiple state agencies including the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Division of Oil and Public Safety (OPS) and the Division of Water Resources. She also worked with the federal EPA office. 

She began working for OPS in 2004 as an Environmental Protection Specialist (EPS) and worked for them for ten years. As an EPS, she managed environmental clean-up projects in which regulated underground and above-ground petroleum tank systems had released petroleum to the environment, impacting soil and/or groundwater.

Dawn has lived in Colorado since 1998.  She grew up in Michigan and lived in southern Illinois for a short time before moving to the foothills west of Denver.  She and her husband bought land in the SLV in 2006 and moved onto it full time in 2014.  She and her husband operate a small homestead on 40 acres. They have some chickens, geese, rabbits, and quail and are interested in growing food and living a self-sufficient, sustainable lifestyle.