Meet Dawn.
She’s the owner of our
Chick-fil-A.
She casts the vision for where we’re headed as an organization. Dawn is passionate about growing herself and the people in her life to reach their full potential. She spends most of her week either inside the restaurant serving her team and her guests or outside in the community finding her own way to impact the lives in it through various avenues. Her favorite part of the job is working in operations with her team members and competing with them to see if she’s still got it.
After graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Dawn moved to Chicago to work in banking.
After six unfulfilling years in the banking world, Dawn realized she wanted to do work that made a difference—work that had a positive influence on her community. Having worked in her parents’ restaurant as a child, she knew how impactful a well-run restaurant could be for a community.
At this same time, Chick-fil-A was about to build their first store in the Chicago area. Inspired by their corporate purpose and impressed by their reputation, Dawn became intrigued by the idea of working for the company. When she finally decided to put her name in the hat for operator selection, she was turned down—not once but twice—for lacking the leadership experience necessary to operate her own Chick-fil-A. While this was a major setback, Dawn, determined to work for America’s favorite chicken restaurant, didn’t let it stop her.
To gain the experience she needed, Dawn took the next five years to prepare herself, working for an operator in Murphy, Texas, for three years before spending the following two years in Chick-fil-A’s Leadership Development Program. Finally, she was selected as an operator in 2015 at Chick-fil-A at Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis, IN. Then five years later, was selected as an operator, back home in Texas, for Corsicana and its community.
The setbacks in her journey are what fuels Dawn’s passion for developing leaders in the restaurant to this day. When she got her first store, she vowed to not only give her team members opportunities to lead, but to equip them with tools that will give them opportunities she missed when she was their age.
“Always remember to make fun a priority.”
—Dawn.
Working in a high-volume restaurant can be fast paced and stressful. That’s why Dawn is always looking for ways to keep work fun. Whether she’s participating in friendly competition with her team members or hiring a masseuse to make shift breaks more relaxing, Dawn is serious about making her restaurant a fun place to work.
S. Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-A’s founder, once said: "Work is fun when we are doing what we like to do and are performing at our best." And as anyone who watches her at work can tell you: She is having a lot of fun.
Embracing vulnerability &
and seeking feedback
Leadership is a journey paved with victories and defeats. Dawn attributes her victories to her relationship with God, her parents, her husband, the leaders who poured immensely in her, and the books full of wisdom that enlightened her journey.
Dawn’s leadership philosophy is grounded in the belief that leaders do two things consistently: embrace vulnerability and seek feedback from those they lead.
Dawn believes that to lead well, she must be authentic, honest and open with her team, creating an environment in which people feel comfortable sharing their failures or having difficult conversations. She believes that a good leader is human first—and humans, after all, are flawed. Dawn is not afraid to discuss her failures, fears or doubts with her team, knowing that those honest moments lead to growth—both for her and those she leads.
Part of embracing vulnerability is knowing your blind spots as a leader. That’s why Dawn places such importance in regularly seeking feedback from her team and promoting a culture of feedback in her restaurant. Where positive feedback affirms her leadership choices, negative feedback gives her the necessary information required for growth.
Dawn dedicates much of her time to her personal growth as a leader, whether by reading books on leadership, listening to leadership podcasts, or one-on-one time spent with her mentors. Some leaders who have had the most influence on her leadership include S. Truett Cathy, Kristen Hadeed, Brené Brown, Craig Groeschel, Bob Goff and Michael Hyatt.
A natural-born servant, Dawn grew up working at Sportsman’s Restaurant, her family’s small business in Eagle Lake, Texas. Watching her parents embrace hard work with enthusiasm and cheerfully serve others ignited Dawn’s passion for service. Some of her earliest memories are charming guests at her parents’ restaurant and making them laugh. While in college, Dawn worked as server to help pay for college books and living expenses.
Today, when she’s not at the restaurant serving guests or her team, she’s at home with her husband Mike, taking salsa dance lessons or working out. In Indiana, she was also active in her church, leading a weekly Bible study and volunteering there on weekends with her husband.
Dawn is very excited to serve Corsicana. Her vision for our restaurant is simple: “To provide her team the best place to work and her guests the best place to eat in all of Corsicana” . Much has changed for Dawn since the days at Sportsman’s Restaurant, but one thing remains true: Dawn is just as passionate about serving people now as she was then.
[Below: LEFT: Dawn (bottom right) with her sister and her parents at Sportsman’s Restaurant, 1985 | RIGHT: Dawn with her parent right outside her Chick-fil-A inside the food court at Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis, 2019.]
