The Pride Centre of Edmonton is excited to welcome our new Executive Director Dawn Carter!
Dawn Carter is a writer, educator, performance poet, public speaker, entrepreneur, and activist with Caribbean heritage. She emigrated with her family from racialized civil unrest in early 1970’s England. They lived in rural Alberta before settling in Edmonton, where she considers herself a Northsider for life. Dawn brings a wealth of experience as a front-line worker with the EI program, an HR professional from the Public Health Agency of Canada and Statistics Canada, and a business outreach specialist with Public Services and Procurement Canada. She also volunteered on several federal employee boards to develop peer-supported career advancement programs for BIPOC employees.
Dawn believes in justice and empowerment. A galvanizing moment for her was when Delwin Vriend, the beloved instructor for her chemistry class, was fired from the university for being gay. His Supreme Court case ended with a landmark decision that ruled discrimination based on sexual orientation was unconstitutional. After Delwin’s dismissal, Dawn wrote an editorial for the school paper that called out campus-wide misogyny. Her piece rallied women-identified staff and students to confront the issue.
Dawn has collaborated with altView, YouthWrite Society Canada, Anderson Career Training Institute and the Africa Centre to empower community members in their creative expression and business communication skills. She has also worked with arts and culture organizations as a performer and producer. In 2016, she hosted the Ministry of Human Services Inspiration Awards, which recognized organizations that build awareness, contribute to violence prevention and advance healthy relationships for all Albertans. Most recently, her writing has appeared in The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology (2020), the first collection of Black writers from the Canadian Prairies.
Dawn is grateful to former ED, Esfefan Cortes-Vargas, for his dedication to and leadership of PCE into a new era. She looks forward to continuing the Pride Centre’s work in becoming a hub to empower and build capacity in social justice work for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, centering QTBIPOC voices in our projects and programs, and enhancing the warm and vibrant building that many people call home.
She is inspired by her late cousin, Ian. And by open blue skies.
