Dawn Araujo-Hawkins covers the intersections of religion, race and gender. She graduated from Ball State in 2010 with a passion for religion journalism, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in magazine journalism and French before attaining a Master of Arts degree from Cincinnati Christian University in religion, urban and intercultural studies. Dawn has written for numerous publications, providing content for the Muslim Hoosier, Sojourners magazine, and Global Sisters Report before acquiring the news editor role at the Christian Century in August 2019. In the past, her stories have covered social-justice issues such as sexism and anti-Black racism in Catholic institutions.

In 2016, the American Academy of Religion named Dawn the best in-depth religion news writer, and more accolades followed: She earned the designation as Best Online Feature Writer at the Great Plains Journalism Awards in 2019. A self-described devotee of the em dash, Dawn’s writing knowledge and skills have also led to service opportunities. She is currently vice president of both the Religion News Association and Anabaptist World magazine boards of directors, and she also serves on the board of the Religion News Foundation.

In past interviews, Dawn has offered sage advice to the up-and-coming generation of media practitioners, encouraging them to relax and to not try to control everything. She recommends having a vision and having a purpose, and after that, things will unfold as they’re supposed to.