Ashley Dawson

Background

About Ashley Dawson

In October 2023, I opened my town’s only independent bookstore, located in historic downtown St. Joseph, Missouri. We sell books and bookish items to readers of all ages. In August 2016 I created to serve the city of St. Joseph, Missouri by making it easier to find programming for kids and families and provide a resource to help families connect with each other and strengthen the greater St. Joseph community. I ran this for 3.5 years. For the first 7 years of my career I had the privilege of working for Special Olympics Missouri (SOMO). While at Special Olympics Missouri I held many different positions, which involved managing a large grant, growing social media presence & managing the website, overseeing volunteers, and more. My position as Project UNIFY Manager allowed me to work with teachers and students to bring the message of inclusion, acceptance, and respect to all people. What started as managing a grant, transitioned into managing an arm of our everyday program that specifically focuses on youth engagement. I was fortunate to get to see students working to make this world a better, safer place for Special Olympics athletes. Previous experience included growing Special Olympics Missouri's (SOMO) social media engagement by nearly 50% over the course of 10 months. I also managed content on the SOMO website, and ran a successful targeted e-communications campaign which increased donor giving. In addition to that, I simultaneously managed nearly volunteers across four state-level events. Additionally, I spent 2 years working in development for Special Olympics Missouri and most of a year managing logistics and equipment for our state-level competitions.