Dawn Hudgins

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT DAWN HUDGINS

Long before I had a title, I had stories. In second grade, I wrote a poem I was sure was brilliant…until my mom told me it wasn\'t.I got to work.I filled notebooks with thrillers for sleepovers, chasing that feeling of pulling people in. I loved it, but grew up with the refrain: art is a hobby, not a career.So I pivoted to marketing and advertising, where words, images, and emotion still mattered.While in school, I worked at an ad agency and a film service bureau, building relationships with clients from Texaco to Volvo to Diadora.As graduation approached, I watched alumni wait tables with their degrees and thought: That\'s not my story. I\'m young. I have nothing. Which means I have nothing to lose.I started my own company right out of college.Those relationships turned into clients fast, and suddenly my business was designing uniforms for the Dallas Cowboys\' 1994 Super Bowl season.Around that time, a client needed authors for a children\'s book series. I gathered candidates and slipped my own manuscript into the pile. It won international awards, was translated into seven languages, and gave me the runway to build my business.At 23, I was learning life lessons fast and discovering something that would shape my career: knowing when to close a door and when to walk through one.That next door was Volvo. What felt like a twist became thirteen years as Head of Marketing Communications for their IT division in NA. I spoke internationally and helped reshape the culture inside an organization with a rough reputation. Within two years, we turned perception around so dramatically that leadership questioned whether the scores were accurate. They ran them again. They were.After Volvo, I published another book, wrote a produced stage play, and drafted a musical before heading to Litera, where I met Joy.When Joy was then offered the CEO role at ILTA, she said she wouldn\'t take it unless I came with her.There\'s nothing I enjoy more than improving processes and having hard conversations, so we got to work. Today, ILTA is thriving. What makes it special is something you can\'t manufacture: relationships with deep roots. A community where a conference conversation turns into a call that changes your business. Where people genuinely have each other\'s backs.Outside work, I\'m an author, illustrator, and painter with pieces exhibited from the U.S. to the Louvre. And if a snowstorm traps me inside, there\'s a decent chance I\'ll emerge with a puppet.