Chasing Sunsets
Bridging Family, Post-Secondary Education, and Mental Health
My name is Dawn M. Wilson
Ph.D. candidate | Licensed Clinician | Proud FirstGen College Grad | Scholar-Practitioner
and I'm on a mission to get more Black students to graduate from college.
Dawn M. Wilson brings 18 years of admissions and college access and success experience to her role as Principal Consultant of Chasing Sunsets. Prior to joining beginning her consultancy, Dawn served as the Associate Director of College Preparation Initiatives at Princeton University, the inaugural Director of College Success for Cooperman College Scholars (CCS), and Assistant Director of Multicultural Recruitment at The College of New Jersey where she supported students on all points related to admission, financial aid counseling, transition to college, academic success, life design and career planning, personal wellness, persistence, and gradution.
As a first generation graduate, Dawn embodies her personal ethos: “be who you needed when you were younger.'' This sentiment fuels her work with students, allowing her to meet students where they are and aid in their “becoming”. Dawn takes great pride in having a living body of work– students whose lives have been changed by the work she has done.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Dawn is a proud product of the New Jersey public school system, having been educated there from elementary through graduate school. Dawn earned her Master’s in Counseling from The College of New Jersey, holds a New Jersey Associate License of Marriage and Family Therapy (LAMFT), and is in the dissertation phase of her Ph.D. in counseling.
Educational Leadership Philosophy
Access and opportunity are the cornerstones of the educational leadership philosophy at Chasing Sunsets, which are enacted at the intersections of family, mental health, and collegiate success. We believe that providing opportunities and tools for students to expand in safe and inclusive spaces is paramount to their educational experience, therefore, we employ a culturally sustainable pedagogical framework, grounded in the tenets of justice, love, community, equity, knowledge, and truth (Escoto German, 2021). Our educational praxis is liberatory (hooks, 1994)—creating a space that unlocks new realms of thinking and being, where students are invited to explore their ways of knowing through lived experience and course material. It is the sum of our educational journeys, lived experience, and practice as educators and clinicians that has shaped our approach to program development and design. Our counseling background and doctoral research have prepared us to implement important socio-emotional training and context into college access and success systems and curricula. We are invested in young people’s success, and understand that the better we aid students in their holistic wellness, the greater the likelihood that they learn to manage challenges, persist in college, and cultivate a life of freedom, purpose, and choice. Asé.