Dawn

A Chinese proverb says, “Every great journey begins with a first step.” I grew up in a tiny town on the west side of New Jersey near the Pennsylvania border, called Stewartsville.
After studying television/film communications and journalism in Pennsylvania, I spent seven years living abroad. I modeled and worked in TV commercials in Hamburg, London, Capetown, Milan and Paris, which is where I studied French and French history at L'Universite’ Paris-Sorbonne. Because of my media background and fluency in French I was allowed to travel to Togo where I worked with delegates from England, France, and the United States to oversee the African country’s first free elections.
I moved to New York in 1995 where I started co-hosting the show “Men’s Journal on ESPN”. The show took me throughout the US where I learned to rock climb, fly fish, white water kayak and white water canoe, mountain bike and ride horses (just to name a few). After the show went off the air (but not before finishing two NYC marathons), I decided to try my luck in Los Angeles.
In 1997, at a friend’s request; I competed in my first adventure race- New Zealand’s “Southern Traverse”, and finished in 5 grueling days. I was also part of a two-person support crew for Andy Petranek’s team that competed in the Raid Gauloises in Ecuador. I was hooked and I continued to do sprint adventure races and mini triathlons as well as host OLN’s “Gear Guide”.
Then in 2002, I was hired as an on-camera reporter for Fox Sports West where in my first year I won an Emmy for “outstanding sports reporting in Los Angeles.” I covered the Angels during the 2002 World Series season, was one of Fox’s main Mighty Ducks correspondents during the 2003 playoffs, and covered the Lakers throughout the 2003 season. After the birth of my daughter, I retired from Fox having earned six Emmy nominations and one statue in just 14 months.
An active athlete, I continue to run local 5k’s and 10k’s and sprint adventure type races (if they are local). I am currently a certified CrossFit instructor at Petranek Fitness in Santa Monica, Program Director for The Next Right Thing and I’m still a full time mommy.