Dawn Pilkington, MS
Program Director

Dawn Pilkington’s twenty-three year career has been dedicated to designing and implementing human services and community development programs for high-risk populations. She has directed complex projects in government, nonprofit, and consulting environments. Her focus is on design, integration and delivery of high quality, high impact services to our nation’s most vulnerable populations ―individuals and families suffering from homelessness, domestic violence, mental or physical illness, incarceration, addiction, delinquency, abuse, neglect and economic hardship. Dawn has extensive experience in community assessment, collaboration and partnerships, stakeholder engagement, consensus building across a range of political perspectives, retooling and comprehensive redesign of human services delivery systems, strategic planning, grant acquisition and management, organizational assessment, and nonprofit capacity building.

As director for the Compassion Capital Fund’s (CCF) National Resource Center, Dawn oversees the delivery of technical assistance and training to 453 HHS-funded grantees. The Center ensures that grantees of CCF’s Demonstration, Targeted Capacity Building, and Communities Empowering Youth programs have the tools, training, and support they need to execute their capacity building programs and improve and expand services in their communities.

Dawn brings her practitioner and federal management consulting experience to DMT. As a nonprofit executive director, she designed, launched, and directed a model outcomes-based transitional housing program for homeless people. As a federal consultant, she managed a large performance-based technical assistance contract for HUD, valued at 50 million dollars.

Dawn earned an MS in organizational development from GMU’s School of Public Policy, and a BA in psychology with a minor in English. She pursued graduate studies in social work and has been honored by local governments with outstanding service awards. She and her husband, David, enjoy live music, theater, and playing with their dog, Bailey.