| IN*SOURCE WELCOMES
NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
We are pleased and excited to announce that Dr. Dawn McGrath has accepted the offer to become the next Executive Director at IN*SOURCE. Dawn has been a friend to IN*SOURCE for many years and in many capacities. She has served as a special educator, a state leader, a district administrator, a university professor, and a parent of a child with a disability. In each situation, IN*SOURCE has played an important role in her life.
As a special educator in the 1990’s, she and her husband, Steve, reached out to IN*SOURCE for information and support in the diagnosis and placement of their older son, Chris. “IN*SOURCE helped us find our way into the warm arms of the disability community where there is understanding and support,” Dawn shares. “For this, we have been eternally grateful.”
In the 2000’s, Dawn became a Project Director for the Indiana Department of Education, Division of Exceptional Learners and eventually served as the state director. In these roles, she participated in numerous training and collaboration efforts with IN*SOURCE staff and clientele. Dawn established the Indiana Resource Network to assure that the needs of the state were collaboratively addressed by a team of the statewide grant projects, including IN*SOURCE. She also created a position at the IDOE for a representative of IN*SOURCE to serve in a state leadership role, an invitation that continues through today.
In the decade that followed, she served as the Director for Special Programs at Kokomo Center Schools, the Director of Secondary Education at Hamilton Southeastern Schools, and the Deputy Superintendent, Director of Special Education for Elkhart Community Schools. She worked collaboratively with IN*SOURCE to establish parent support groups and organize training opportunities for parents in those districts. Concurrently, she taught graduate and undergraduate courses such as Special Education Law and Pre-service Experiences for aspiring teachers and administrators.
Dawn received her Bachelor and Master Degrees in Special Education from Northern Illinois University and her Doctorate in Special Education Leadership from Ball State University. Having raised two sons, she and her husband Steve currently live in Elkhart, Indiana. Chris earned his Bachelor’s in communication from Indiana University, Kokomo in 2018. Their younger son, Nick, earned his Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 2019 and is working and living with his wife, Melanie, in the suburbs of Chicago.
The commitments throughout Dawn’s lifetime are characterized and woven together by passionate efforts to lift up individuals with disabilities and invest in communities with families who live with disadvantage. Dawn affirms the continuance of that commitment, “I am highly motivated to dedicate what I have learned through all of these experiences to serve alongside the amazing individuals at IN*SOURCE, who positively impact the lives of so many children and families every day.”
Dawn’s first day will be Monday, May 17th and she will work out of the main office in South Bend. Please join us in congratulating her and welcoming her to her new position. |
