Kay Dawson,
Grants Program Specialist 
  ay Dawson is the grants program
specialist for TCWF. Dawson brought more than 12 years of software development and program analysis experience to TCWF when she started with the Foundation in 1997 as the information systems technical support specialist.
“I appreciate working for The California Wellness Foundation because I have always had an interest in health-related projects,” Dawson said.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Dawson was quality assurance manager of software systems for the St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. Systems included computerized patient records tracking and automated transcribing.
Dawson also worked for ACS Telecom, a small family-owned software solutions developer. While there, she developed computer systems for the Spinal Cord Injury Center in Atlanta, Georgia,
that enabled people who were severely physically challenged to communicate and develop job skills.
“It felt so good to be able to see how my efforts contributed to improving
the quality of life for the four quadriplegic men we tested the software on,”
Dawson said. “That’s why I love working for the Foundation — because our entire
mission is dedicated to improving health.”
In her capacity as grants program specialist for TCWF, Dawson is the database
administrator for Gifts, a grants-management software program. She also provides
training and technical assistance on Gifts to the Foundation’s program, finance
and communications staff. Dawson works closely with the Foundation’s director of
grants administration.
“I think this organization has the greatest staff to work with,” Dawson said. “Encountering the
diversity of staff that we have at the Foundation was a new experience for me when I started to work here. It is so rewarding and interesting to get to know people from so many different cultures.”
Dawson also provides online Gifts database support to other foundations across the country as an active member of MicroEdge’s Problem Solvers Group. MicroEdge is the manufacturer of Gifts.
She has conducted trainings on Gifts software at national conferences and is a member of the Southern California Association of Philanthropy’s Gifts Users Group.
Dawson is a 13-year breast cancer survivor. She is an active volunteer with
her church and sings in the choir. Dawson has two children and four
grandchildren (with a fifth due in November). She lives in Thousand Oaks,
California, with her mother.
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