KCC Senior Staff

Mary E. Dawson, PhD
Associate Provost and Dean of Health Programs

Dr. Mary Elizabeth Dawson, a Brooklyn native, joined the KCC faculty of biological sciences in 1993. She quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a full professor and eventually chair of the department. Dawson has served as Kingsborough Community College’s associate provost and dean of health programs since February 2024. She has responsibility for all curricular and assessment matters and oversees high school partnership programs.

As dean of health programs, Dawson responds to trends across education and the healthcare landscape by identifying new health programs to meet workforce demand, developing new program proposals and innovative forms of program delivery, and implementing a comprehensive plan to achieve strategic expansion and enrollment growth in health programs.

Throughout her 30 years of teaching, she has dedicated herself to student success and public education. Notable contributions include her involvement in KCC Learning Communities since 2004, participation in the Writing Across the Curriculum Program, and conducting formal biology review sessions for the clinical nursing program’s entrance exam. She has also been a faculty advisor to Phi Theta Kappa, KCC’s two-year college international honor society chapter, for over a decade.

Dawson holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Brooklyn College and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from SUNY Downstate Medical College. She brings a wealth of experience to the table, including having served as a trustee at St. Francis College and contributing to health economics research.