Dawn's passion for photography with the gift of a plastic camera. She published articles and photos in the Manchester Union Leader in the late 1970s, and worked in retail photo shops and privately as a wedding and industrial photographer, winning a few regional awards, before she discovered her skill with computers was in high demand. She spent 19 years with companies such as Centronics, Balzers, IBM, Parker Brothers, Lotus Development, and Boston Acoustics, as a graphics software engineer, product designer, engineering manager, and marketing executive. She developed graphical interface infrastructures, games, commercial software, marketing collateral, advertising campaigns and presentation materials. Dawn founded Applied Chaos, Inc. in 1996 to create an internet community around her love of the arts. At the Landscape Institute of the BAC she studies the role of furniture and structure in creating great outdoor places.