Dawn Chavez

Dawn Chávez began the doctoral program in Environmental Studies at Antioch New England Graduate School in 2001. Prior to that, she worked for eight years leading low-income inner city students from New York in environmental learning experiences. From 2003 through 2007, Dawn worked as the Education Program Director at the Urban Ecology Institute (UEI), serving students and teachers in the Boston metropolitan area. In 2006, Dawn started the Boston Youth Environmental Network, bringing together over 140 programs and organizations in Boston and across Massachusetts in order to increase academic achievement, outdoor recreation and environmental career pathways for children and youth. While leading the Boston Youth Environmental Network for seven years, and having two adorable, energetic children, Dawn put her doctoral work on hold and eventually decided to stop pursuing it. With a special interest in young people growing up in cities, as she had, Dawn had planned to focus her doctoral research on investigating the the ecological worldviews of first- and second-generation immigrants, an often overlooked population of learners. Dawn and her family moved to North Carolina in 2015, where Dawn worked as the Executive Director of Asheville GreenWorks for more than eight years. In June 2023, Dawn took on the role of Executive Director of the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) -- a program in which she participated in 2006. Dawn, her husband and two children live in Asheville, NC.