Faculty

contact

[email protected]
306 W 139th Street
New York, NY 10030

Education

D.Min., New York Theological Seminary
M.SW., Fordham University

biography

Dawn is a social worker dedicated to healing individuals and systems for over 30 years by creating a supportive community and encouraging people to share their gifts and work for change. Some of her favorite accomplishments include:

• The establishment of two homeless shelters and the co-organizing of East Side Congregations for Housing Justice, which brought religious leaders in NYC together to dialogue with elected officials on a blueprint to end homelessness in NYC.
• Creation of partnerships connecting philanthropists in NYC to grassroots sustainable development projects in many countries in Africa
• Creation of the Coming Home prison re-entry project.

In the last 15 years, Dawn’s work in prison re-entry and creation of restorative community has been transformational for her, her program participants, and the larger community. Dawn designed the Coming Home prison re-entry program while she was on Pastoral Staff at The Reformed Church of Bronxville. It was modeled after a life skills program for homeless people run by Interfaith Assembly for Housing and Homelessness and Catholic Charities; Hudson Link gave additional advice and support. Dawn’s passion to educate and engage community members to address the root causes of problems and work for social change led the program to adopt trauma-informed practices as it evolved. She collaborated with Fordham University and Beck Institute of Religion and Poverty, conducting research and facilitating replication of the program by other institutions, leading to many successful iterations of Coming Home. The research yielded exciting results: the program participants demonstrated significantly reduced trauma scores plus increased coping skills and a sense of spirituality. With such encouraging news, Dawn focused on Coming Home in her award-winning doctoral work. Additional exciting outgrowths of this program include efforts for systemic change, advocacy, racial conciliation, trauma-healing retreats, artistic projects, a think tank of credible messengers, and new restorative justice practices.

Dawn left the church’s social justice ministry in 2020 to become Executive Director of Emmaus House Harlem. There, she brought many Coming Home alumni together and trained them to use restorative justice practices, work to end gang violence and gun violence, and also mobilize additional community members to participate actively in deeper healing, dialogue across differences, and community building.

In June 2023, when Emmaus House Harlem ceased operations, Dawn quickly created Communities for Healing and Justice Inc. to ensure no gap in services or support for the community she had made in Harlem. She continues this work today, along with additional healing opportunities for people without access. Her long-term goal is to house this work in a building in Harlem, with the addition of a social enterprise, wraparound services, and support for alumni initiatives. She is working alongside like-minded collaborators to make this happen.

Dawn has been an Adjunct Professor at Yeshiva Wurzweiler Graduate School of Social Work, New York Theological Seminary inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work, and a collaborator with Beck Institute for Religion and Poverty. She is currently an adjunct professor at Union Theological Seminary.

Dawn also provides internships and supervision for clinical social work students and seminarians. Her own clinical practice focuses on holistic psychotherapy for trauma, loss, and transition. She is a student of Bessel van der Kolk and has a Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies from the Trauma Research Foundation. Her commitment to this work stems from her belief that our own healing equips us to be peacemakers and healers in the world.

CV/Publications