Dawn Lavell Harvard, Ph.D., is a proud member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, the first Aboriginal Trudeau Scholar, and has worked to advance the rights of Aboriginal women as the President of the Ontario Native Women's Association from 2003 to Oct 2021.

After serving as Vice-president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada for three years, Dawn was elected National President at the 41st Annual General Assembly on July 11, 2015, in Montreal, Quebec.

In October 2016, after fulfilling her promise to see the MMIWG Inquiry initiated, Dawn left her role as National Leader and took on the part of Director at the First Peoples House of Learning at Trent University.