The Wooden Floor

MANAGEMENT

CEO/Executive Director

Dawn S. Reese

CEO/Executive Director Experience

Dawn S. Reese, CFRE is the Chief Executive Officer of The Wooden Floor. She is a social innovator who leverages her unique blend of experience in business, technology, education, and the arts to propel young people forward. The Wooden Floor’s mission is to inspire and transform the lives of young people through the power of dance and access to higher education. Since 2005, 100% of the students who graduate from The Wooden Floor immediately enroll in higher education. During Dawn’s 17-year tenure, the organization’s budget has grown from $2.1M to $4.1M and its Endowment Fund has grown from $1.8M to $8.8M. she has led scale its impact, both locally by growing from 375 to nearly 500 students across two locations in Santa Ana and 3,000 children through its community engagement programs, and nationally, through its Licensed Partner program. The Wooden Floor has reached a new milestone of serving over 100,000 young people since its founding in 1983. Dawn has been honored with the following awards: 2025 National Philanthropy Day Orange County Inaugural Nonprofit Leader Award; 2024 Orange County Register 125 Most Influential People in Orange County, 2023 Templo Calvario Empowering Lives Award; 2022 Los Angeles Times Orange County Visionary, among other awards. The Wooden Floor has been recognized as an Orange County Business Journal Best Places to Work for 2025, 2024, 2023 and in 2018. Currently, Dawn serves on the Board of Directors for the Advisors in Philanthropy Orange County, MVS Foundation, Passkeys Foundation, OC Forum, Orange County Music and Dance, as well as the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce as Board Chair. Since 2018, Dawn has been the Chair of the Santa Ana Youth Mental Health Sub-Committee for the Santa Ana Task Force, a community collaborative.

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