Meet Dawn
The top vote-getter in the DuPage County Board District 5 elections, Dawn DeSart sits on the County Board's Public Transit Committee (Vice Chair), the Animal Services Committee, the Community Development Commission, the Finance Committee, the Health and Human Services Committee, the Intergovernmental Committee, and the Ad-Hoc Adult Businesses Committee (Vice Chair).
A fiscal conservative when she served on the IPSD 204 Board of Education, the district increased its credit rating to the top 10% of U.S. school districts. ACT scores increased at twice the Illinois rate and five times the national rate. All of this during a period when the board also had to make cuts to the budget and increase fees that hadn't risen in years to cover a $30 million shortfall when she was elected.
Dawn is a graduate of Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, IL. In 2000, she was honored with WVHS’s Distinguished Alumni award. That same year, Naperville Mayor A. George Pradel declared May 9th as “Dawn DeSart Day” in the city of Naperville.
Dawn graduated college with a B.S. in Mass Communications from Minnesota State University, Mankato, her parents’ alma mater. Dawn has spent her remarkable career as a journalist in every medium: newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. While at NBC5 in Chicago, Dawn earned five Emmy Awards for excellence in journalism.
In 2001, Dawn was awarded the Anti-Cruelty Society of Chicago’s Media Personality of the Year Award.
Dawn has served the following local organizations.
-Public Information Officer, Naper Pride (2019-present)
- District 204 School Board Member (2009 - 2013)
- Democratic Precinct Committeeperson for five years (four years in Wheatland Township, one year in Naperville Township)
- Vice Chairman of the Wheatland Township Democrats
- Fox Valley United Way Board Member
- Campaigns and Candidates Team Leader, Act, Connect, Engage (ACE) Naperville
- Member, Indivisible Naperville
- President (for two years) on the Little Blessings Preschool Board
- Girl Scout Leader for eight years
- Feed My Starving Children gala emcee, as well as emceeing charitable events throughout the Chicago area
- Member, Screen Actors Guild