Dawn Gipson is currently Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Centene Corporation, where she is responsible for analyzing employee metrics and developing policy recommendations and educational programming that advance the company’s inclusive culture. Before joining Centene, Dawn worked at FleishmanHillard for 19 years, where she did communications strategy, program planning, events management, and DE&I strategic development. As the D&I Champion for the company’s Global Headquarters, some of the initiatives launched during her tenure included a focus on inclusive policies to drive results in talent and employee engagement, a mentoring program for high school students, and the launch of an LGBTQ+ employee resource group. Dawn’s work at FleishmanHillard was recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal in 2018, when she was a recipient of the Diverse Business Leaders Award.
Dawn is a member of the St. Louis Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta and co-chair of the regional leadership development team, along with serving as Chair of the St. Louis Delta Foundation. In 2016, she became a certified yoga instructor, and she works to bring practices to underrepresented communities, including people of color and those with differing abilities. Born and raised in St. Louis, Dawn received her bachelor’s of journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She earned her master’s of fine arts with a concentration in graphic communications from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
