Dawn was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent Belfast East in March 2007.

Dawn is Leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, appointed by the Executive Committee after the death of David Ervine. She joined the party in 1994 and has held a number of offices in the last 12 years including Chairperson, Chair of the Women’s Commission and Spokesperson on Equality. She has helped produce many of party policy documents.

Dawn has been involved in politics for 15 years, was elected as part of the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, played a vital role in the talks team in 1998 and was the PUP Assembly Co-ordinator during the first term of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

After returning to education in 1997, she graduated from Queens in 2003. Dawn is now an academic researcher and has worked for the Universities of Ulster and Huddersfield.

In April 2006 Dawn was appointed as an independent member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

She is committed to assisting working class Unionism into playing a constructive and active role within our society.

“We as a Party were all devastated by the death of David Ervine, indeed the country as a whole has lost its most gifted, passionate and honest politicians. However it is for this reason that I and my team in the Progressive Unionist Party must insure that we continue David’s job of work in East Belfast and further a field and work tirelessly so that his and our vision for a better Northern Ireland can be achieved.”

“Every individual on the planet has potential. Where I come from, the lack of opportunities mean that many individuals fail to achieve their full potential. Our job is to help and encourage that realisation.”

Dawn keeps a blog on where you can learn more about her thoughts on current issues click here.