Florida is ranked #3 in the USA for the highest reported cases of human trafficking. It has become such an epidemic that it is now mandated that human trafficking prevention be taught in public schools. Dawn Marie believes it would not exist anywhere in the USA without the demand by men. Most men have never paid for commercial sex, but the ones who do have done great harm to our community’s most vulnerable. She believes the solution to ending this problem is multi-faceted but not impossible. She also believes in the power of our good, upstanding men and calls upon them to be her ally in this fight.
Speaking from her heart and history, she connects with people from all backgrounds. Her own story as it relates to human trafficking begins in the projects of Buffalo, New York. Her earliest memories are of domestic violence at home and being woken in the middle of the night to be taken to a battered women’s shelter. Since the age of 5, she experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse by countless predators her young single mother seemed to attract. By age 12 Dawn Marie began running away from home only to find herself in the detention and foster care system dealing with an entirely new set of predators.
In high school, Dawn Marie joined the drama club and discovered that theater was a safe place for her to express herself. She still struggled with bullies but always found solace in her theater friends and through performing in and later directing plays. Her other outlet was music and singing. She also started competing in pageants and won the title of Miss New York Teen of the Nation. She went on to study at the American Musical & Dramatic Academy of New York City where she graduated in 1993. She has since appeared in dozens of films, tv shows and commercials as an actor and a TV Host, including appearances on Law & Order, Sex in the City and DatelineNBC. She also went on to win the national title of Ms. United States. She has been an award-winning bullying prevention speaker and has to date spoken to over 100,000 kids in schools across the country.
Dawn has been a guest on CBS’s Good Morning South Florida, NBC’s Impact 5 Segment on Bullying, NBC WPTV on Human Trafficking, Access Sacramento and 97.9 WRMF Radio with Jennifer Ross as a Bullying Prevention Specialist. In 2011, she was invited to participate in a panel discussion on Bullying at Lynn University. In 2012, Dawn Marie was awarded by the Palm Beach County School District for her countless community service hours as a bullying prevention speaker for Palm Beach County Schools.
She has also appeared in front-page news in cities across the country including the Buffalo News, the Connecticut Post, the Jamestown Times, the Cheektowaga Times, the Sun-Sentinel, and the Palm Beach Post. In 2000 she was featured on an episode of DatelineNBC which addressed how attitude and appearance can affect our treatment in society.
When Dawn Marie is not speaking, she is using her voice to connect people to their hearts and humanity through song. She performs regularly for our president but considers her role to be completely non-political with the exception of asking for his full support on the issue of human trafficking. She spends any free time ensuring that her Boston Terrier Giacomo Puccini gets 1,000 kisses daily. He is her bullying prevention mascot and a human trafficking hero.
