Dawn Valadez is a queer, Xicana, social worker, filmmaker, activist, fundraiser, and impact strategist. Her award-winning first film, Going On 13, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Dawn is the Producer/ Co-director of THE PUSHOUTS (2018) with Katie Galloway which won the 2019 Imagen Best Documentary award and is a Sundance Stories of Change project.

A 2020 recipient of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media – See It, Be It Development Fellow, Dawn is in pre-production on two series – one scripted and one documentary focusing on police violence. She is a consulting producer on a number of projects including, When You Were Young (Tracey Quesada), Vivien’s Wild Ride (Vivien Hillgrove), and Manzanar, Diverted (Ann Kaneko).

Dawn is an alumni of the CPB Producers Academy, BAVC Media National MediaMaker Fellowship, NALIP’s Latino Producers Academy and Media Market and the Women of Color Filmmakers’ Residency. Dawn co-founded the award-winning BAYAC AmeriCorps (Youth Development) Program, created a Cesar Chavez Memorial Youth Leadership Council, and trained hundreds of teachers and youth development workers. She provides consultation to a number of racial and social justice organizations in the SF Bay Area.

She is a former BAVC Media Board Member and proud graduate of the UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare.