Dawn P. Dawson
K-12 Educational & Reference Publishing Executive, Retired at Social Studies School Service- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Peter Tobey
Dawn and I worked together for several years during dramatic transitions at Salem Press. She was both Editor and COO while the company moved from multi-volume print reference to add proprietary online databases and ebooks. Dawn managed these changed wonderfully, finding both business and editorial solutions to challenges the rapidly changing environment presented. She is a very talented editor with remarkable organization skills.
Christina J. Moose
It has been my honor to work with and learn from Dawn P. Dawson, an exceptional executive, manager, and publications/media director, for more than twenty years. During that period, Dawn led Salem Press, a library reference publisher, with distinction as its chief operating officer, transitioning to de facto CEO after the company was purchased in 2009 by EBSCO Publishing. Dawn built the company in concert with its owner/founder and executive vice president from a small concern to a multimillion-dollar star in reference publishing whose reputation for excellence and award-winning titles became well established in worldwide library markets, largely because of her tenure. Her accomplishments are myriad and of the highest order: She recruited and mentored exceptional academic, editorial, and technical talent to grow the acquisitions, editorial, photo/image, production, desktop publishing, and digital/online media departments, blazing trails in business development as well as editorial-production operations. Her insight and vision are truly astounding at times; she is an exceptional listener who easily identifies the concerns of all stakeholders and, more important, channels them to serve the company mission. She spearheaded the company’s successful programs for print and digital information products, designing the annual list, and her grasp of editorial production, marketing, and business development are supported by her deep comprehension of the financials that justify these programs. She subjects those instincts to her well-designed P&Ls, metrics, and other objective assessment tools. On a personal note, I have witnessed Dawn on countless occasions teaching by example, herding a broad range of personalities—from talented project and department managers, external vendors, and academic scholars to corporate executives—toward a profit-based company objective. She consistently garners the respect of all who work with her, at all levels. Dawn’s talents as a foundational business leader who quickly grasps process but does not become mired in it, who attracts and leads talented individuals, and who rapidly and incisively identifies, develops, and delegates new programs are rare and would make her a core asset in most businesses at the executive level, let alone those focused in communications, publishing, information, and media.
Peter Tobey
Dawn and I worked together for several years during dramatic transitions at Salem Press. She was both Editor and COO while the company moved from multi-volume print reference to add proprietary online databases and ebooks. Dawn managed these changed wonderfully, finding both business and editorial solutions to challenges the rapidly changing environment presented. She is a very talented editor with remarkable organization skills.
Christina J. Moose
It has been my honor to work with and learn from Dawn P. Dawson, an exceptional executive, manager, and publications/media director, for more than twenty years. During that period, Dawn led Salem Press, a library reference publisher, with distinction as its chief operating officer, transitioning to de facto CEO after the company was purchased in 2009 by EBSCO Publishing. Dawn built the company in concert with its owner/founder and executive vice president from a small concern to a multimillion-dollar star in reference publishing whose reputation for excellence and award-winning titles became well established in worldwide library markets, largely because of her tenure. Her accomplishments are myriad and of the highest order: She recruited and mentored exceptional academic, editorial, and technical talent to grow the acquisitions, editorial, photo/image, production, desktop publishing, and digital/online media departments, blazing trails in business development as well as editorial-production operations. Her insight and vision are truly astounding at times; she is an exceptional listener who easily identifies the concerns of all stakeholders and, more important, channels them to serve the company mission. She spearheaded the company’s successful programs for print and digital information products, designing the annual list, and her grasp of editorial production, marketing, and business development are supported by her deep comprehension of the financials that justify these programs. She subjects those instincts to her well-designed P&Ls, metrics, and other objective assessment tools. On a personal note, I have witnessed Dawn on countless occasions teaching by example, herding a broad range of personalities—from talented project and department managers, external vendors, and academic scholars to corporate executives—toward a profit-based company objective. She consistently garners the respect of all who work with her, at all levels. Dawn’s talents as a foundational business leader who quickly grasps process but does not become mired in it, who attracts and leads talented individuals, and who rapidly and incisively identifies, develops, and delegates new programs are rare and would make her a core asset in most businesses at the executive level, let alone those focused in communications, publishing, information, and media.
Peter Tobey
Dawn and I worked together for several years during dramatic transitions at Salem Press. She was both Editor and COO while the company moved from multi-volume print reference to add proprietary online databases and ebooks. Dawn managed these changed wonderfully, finding both business and editorial solutions to challenges the rapidly changing environment presented. She is a very talented editor with remarkable organization skills.
Christina J. Moose
It has been my honor to work with and learn from Dawn P. Dawson, an exceptional executive, manager, and publications/media director, for more than twenty years. During that period, Dawn led Salem Press, a library reference publisher, with distinction as its chief operating officer, transitioning to de facto CEO after the company was purchased in 2009 by EBSCO Publishing. Dawn built the company in concert with its owner/founder and executive vice president from a small concern to a multimillion-dollar star in reference publishing whose reputation for excellence and award-winning titles became well established in worldwide library markets, largely because of her tenure. Her accomplishments are myriad and of the highest order: She recruited and mentored exceptional academic, editorial, and technical talent to grow the acquisitions, editorial, photo/image, production, desktop publishing, and digital/online media departments, blazing trails in business development as well as editorial-production operations. Her insight and vision are truly astounding at times; she is an exceptional listener who easily identifies the concerns of all stakeholders and, more important, channels them to serve the company mission. She spearheaded the company’s successful programs for print and digital information products, designing the annual list, and her grasp of editorial production, marketing, and business development are supported by her deep comprehension of the financials that justify these programs. She subjects those instincts to her well-designed P&Ls, metrics, and other objective assessment tools. On a personal note, I have witnessed Dawn on countless occasions teaching by example, herding a broad range of personalities—from talented project and department managers, external vendors, and academic scholars to corporate executives—toward a profit-based company objective. She consistently garners the respect of all who work with her, at all levels. Dawn’s talents as a foundational business leader who quickly grasps process but does not become mired in it, who attracts and leads talented individuals, and who rapidly and incisively identifies, develops, and delegates new programs are rare and would make her a core asset in most businesses at the executive level, let alone those focused in communications, publishing, information, and media.
Peter Tobey
Dawn and I worked together for several years during dramatic transitions at Salem Press. She was both Editor and COO while the company moved from multi-volume print reference to add proprietary online databases and ebooks. Dawn managed these changed wonderfully, finding both business and editorial solutions to challenges the rapidly changing environment presented. She is a very talented editor with remarkable organization skills.
Christina J. Moose
It has been my honor to work with and learn from Dawn P. Dawson, an exceptional executive, manager, and publications/media director, for more than twenty years. During that period, Dawn led Salem Press, a library reference publisher, with distinction as its chief operating officer, transitioning to de facto CEO after the company was purchased in 2009 by EBSCO Publishing. Dawn built the company in concert with its owner/founder and executive vice president from a small concern to a multimillion-dollar star in reference publishing whose reputation for excellence and award-winning titles became well established in worldwide library markets, largely because of her tenure. Her accomplishments are myriad and of the highest order: She recruited and mentored exceptional academic, editorial, and technical talent to grow the acquisitions, editorial, photo/image, production, desktop publishing, and digital/online media departments, blazing trails in business development as well as editorial-production operations. Her insight and vision are truly astounding at times; she is an exceptional listener who easily identifies the concerns of all stakeholders and, more important, channels them to serve the company mission. She spearheaded the company’s successful programs for print and digital information products, designing the annual list, and her grasp of editorial production, marketing, and business development are supported by her deep comprehension of the financials that justify these programs. She subjects those instincts to her well-designed P&Ls, metrics, and other objective assessment tools. On a personal note, I have witnessed Dawn on countless occasions teaching by example, herding a broad range of personalities—from talented project and department managers, external vendors, and academic scholars to corporate executives—toward a profit-based company objective. She consistently garners the respect of all who work with her, at all levels. Dawn’s talents as a foundational business leader who quickly grasps process but does not become mired in it, who attracts and leads talented individuals, and who rapidly and incisively identifies, develops, and delegates new programs are rare and would make her a core asset in most businesses at the executive level, let alone those focused in communications, publishing, information, and media.
Experience
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Social Studies School Service
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United States
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Education Administration Programs
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1 - 100 Employee
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K-12 Educational & Reference Publishing Executive, Retired
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Jul 2019 - Present
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Director of Publishing
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Jul 2015 - Jul 2019
Oversee development and production of content for eight publishing lines, several digital platforms, and the catalogs division. I report directly to the CEO/Owner and work closely with the National Sales Director, Director of Marketing, Director of Operations, and CFO. Our imprints include,• Nystrom Education: The country’s only manufacturer of markable classroom globes; the largest publisher of grade-specific maps, atlases, and globes; the imprint provides supplemental materials for classroom geography and core social studies curriculum for state and district adoptions.• Social Studies School Service: Engaging secondary social studies activity books and professional development studies. • Interact: Supplemental classroom activities that focus on simulations, role-playing, and project-based learning.• The Center for Learning: Values-based curriculum at the secondary level, covering social studies and ELA.• J. Weston Walch Publisher: Primary and secondary social studies programs that include daily warm-ups, struggling learner programs, primary source activities, and much more.• Good Year Books: Fun, supplemental activities generally for the primary grades; the titles cross all subject areas.• MindSparks: Secondary social studies lessons using primary sources and teaching critical thinking, deep analysis, DBQ strategies.• Storypath: Full-class simulations, in a variety of subject areas, that teach content through the students creating and becoming the story.• ActiveClassroom: A robust digital classroom platform containing more than 4000 activities for every level of student.• Statalogica: A digital world of interactive maps and globes.• The Idea of America: A digital secondary U.S. history program that looks at U.S. history through the lens of different value tensions.
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Editorial Director
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Sep 2013 - Jun 2015
Design publishing systems, workflows, and tools to bring a unified vision and process to disparate imprints. Imprints include the Center for Learning, Good Year Books, Interact, Mindsparks, Storypath, and Social Studies School Service.Develop more than 100 titles per year across imprints.Strengthen company's position in the curriculum-support, K-12 educational market.Consult on issues of cross-division communications, general management, and operations.
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VP, Editorial & Production, Salem Press
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2009 - 2011
Following departure of company’s owner and CEO, became the acting General Manager and COO: managed change from mid-sized independent to corporate culture. Worked with top corporate management to strategically integrate and implement new business practices/policies. Responsible for P&L, $7.1M budget, HR, IT and risk management. Efficiently re-aligned goals and engaged staff in new mission. Cut operating expenses by 9%. Following departure of company’s owner and CEO, became the acting General Manager and COO: managed change from mid-sized independent to corporate culture. Worked with top corporate management to strategically integrate and implement new business practices/policies. Responsible for P&L, $7.1M budget, HR, IT and risk management. Efficiently re-aligned goals and engaged staff in new mission. Cut operating expenses by 9%.
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Salem Press, Inc.
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Pasadena, CA
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Editor-in-Chief; VP Editorial & Production
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1988 - 2011
Member of executive team; accountable for short- and long-term strategic, operational, and financial planning and new product development. Grew annual revenues from $750K to $10M and published pages from 2,000 to 30,000. Expanded product from text-only print volumes to online databases and eBooks. Oversaw all creative activities, from concept to production to warehouse. Consulted on sales and marketing campaigns. Managed WIP/COG and P&L and managed and developed personnel, resources and processes. Best Practices and quality standards. Served as Editor-in-Chief, 1996-2011.
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Education
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Occidental College
B.A., Comparative Literature (French emphasis)
Community
