Dawn Carter

Dawn Carter

Founder, New Dawn Strategy Group

Like many talent leaders, Dawn Carter did not originally set out to build a career in recruiting.

Her professional journey began in the hotel and restaurant industry, where she spent the early years of her career before realizing she wanted to pursue a different path.

After transitioning into HR through a Disney development company, Dawn found herself starting from the ground up.

“I kind of started at the bottom and worked my way around different areas,” she shared.

Supported by a leader who encouraged her growth, Dawn returned to school through UCLA to earn a certificate in Human Resources while continuing to build hands-on experience across multiple areas of HR operations.

As she explored different functions, certain areas naturally resonated more deeply with her — particularly talent acquisition and talent acquisition operations.

Eventually, she found herself drawn toward early career recruiting and diversity-focused hiring initiatives, first within Disney development organizations and later at Walt Disney Imagineering.

For Dawn, recruiting was never part of a carefully planned roadmap.

Instead, it evolved organically through curiosity, experimentation, and discovering work that brought her both fulfillment and purpose.

“It was more of just trying things out and finding what made me feel happy and gave me gratitude,” Dawn explained. “And that ended up being talent acquisition.”

Over the course of her career, Dawn has built a reputation as a thoughtful and strategic talent leader with deep expertise in early career hiring, talent operations, and building scalable recruiting programs inside some of the world’s most recognizable organizations.

What Shaped Her Leadership Philosophy

Throughout her career, Dawn has been heavily influenced by leaders who challenged her to think creatively, move boldly, and lead with intention.

One of the earliest and most impactful influences came from Kristen Strout during Dawn’s time at Amazon.

At the time, Amazon was still in an earlier phase of hypergrowth, creating an environment where teams were encouraged to experiment, move quickly, and innovate constantly.

“We used to ask a lot of forgiveness,” Dawn recalled with a laugh.

Kristen helped cultivate Dawn’s ability to think outside the box while embracing a design-thinking mindset toward talent acquisition challenges.

“She was really great around that design thinking and design preference,” Dawn explained.

Another major influence came from Grace Soriano Abad during Dawn’s time at NetApp.

Dawn credits Grace with helping her refine the skills required to operate effectively at the director level while also teaching her how to navigate organizational change and influence leadership across large companies.

“She really helped me refine my skills of becoming a director,” Dawn shared.

Even after working together professionally, the relationship continued as Grace remained a trusted mentor and source of guidance throughout Dawn’s career journey.

Dawn also pointed to Danny — now Executive Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Expedia — as another leader who had a lasting impact on her development.

The two worked together during a critical growth period at Uber, where Dawn helped lead the transformation of Uber’s early career recruiting efforts from a decentralized model into a centralized global function.

“She allowed me to do my thing and helped me get out of my way sometimes,” Dawn explained.

At the same time, Danny consistently supported her through challenges and setbacks, helping Dawn continue growing as both a recruiter and leader.

Across all of these experiences, Dawn developed a leadership philosophy centered on innovation, trust, adaptability, and empowering teams to grow through both successes and failures.

How AI Is Reshaping Recruiting

Dawn believes AI is dramatically transforming the talent acquisition landscape across nearly every stage of the recruiting process.

From optimizing recruiting funnels and improving operational efficiency to supporting sourcing and candidate engagement, she sees organizations actively evaluating where AI can create the most value within their hiring processes.

“It is drastically changing the talent acquisition world,” Dawn explained.

At the same time, she believes organizations are still navigating important questions around risk, candidate experience, and how much of the hiring process should be automated.

For Dawn, the biggest opportunity lies in using AI to streamline operational workflows while still preserving meaningful human interaction throughout the candidate journey.

“You can’t have an AI agent drive everything related to hiring,” she emphasized.

While she sees tremendous potential for AI-powered tools to improve speed and efficiency, Dawn believes companies must remain intentional about maintaining authentic engagement with candidates and employees.

She also recognizes that every organization is moving at its own pace depending on its tech stack, infrastructure, and appetite for innovation.

“I think every organization is at a place that makes sense for them,” she said.

That balanced perspective reflects Dawn’s broader approach to talent leadership — embracing innovation while ensuring people remain at the center of the recruiting process.

Her Advice for Talent Leaders in 2026

As recruiting continues evolving alongside AI, Dawn believes the most important thing talent leaders can do is remain adaptable while never losing sight of the human side of hiring.

She sees enormous value in leveraging technology to improve recruiting operations, but she also believes strong candidate relationships and thoughtful leadership will continue to separate great organizations from average ones.

For Dawn, recruiting has always been about more than processes and systems.

It is about helping people grow, creating meaningful opportunities, and building environments where individuals can thrive.

That people-centered mindset continues to define how she approaches leadership today.

Whether building recruiting programs, mentoring teams, or navigating organizational transformation, Dawn brings a combination of strategic thinking, operational expertise, and genuine care for people that has made her a highly respected leader across the talent acquisition industry.

That combination of innovation, leadership, and human-centered recruiting philosophy is exactly what makes Dawn Carter a deserving member of the Talent 100.