Dawn is Senior Editor at Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit, online outlet focusing on hyperlocal coverage. She spent almost 10 years at the Chicago Tribune, most recently as the higher education reporter and editor on the Metro desk. She wrote extensively on the financial impacts of the state budget crisis, enrollment trends and leadership changes at the state’s public and private universities. Originally from Denver, she earned her master’s in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s in French from University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. From the playful to the serious, Block Club always has an eye toward showing life in Chicago as Chicagoans experience it — stripped of any preconceptions or decontextualized narratives. As a result, our journalism empowers people to be engaged in their communities.