Dawn Ireland is the President and Founder of CDH International US and leads NGOs for the organization in Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.
She is also a founding member of the Surgical Anomalies Research Alliance (SARA), the Worldwide Rare Advocacy Partnership (WRAP), Rare Advocacy Movement (RAM), the Alliance of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Organizations (ACDHO), a public speaker, and active in the rare disease world as a patient advocate and patient registry expert.
Dawn founded the world's largest charity for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia in 1995 as a grassroots organization and led it to be the most successful NPO of its kind. Through her leadership, CDH International has helped over 7000 families in 84 countries, found a voice on Capitol Hill, raised awareness on national media, created relationships with hospitals and celebrities, pushed for more funding through NIH, created and funded support services and information for families, bought together with the global CDH community, published medical data and raised over $2 million. Currently, she is a member of many pediatric surgery associations and is working with the World Health Organization to help create global standards of care for structural birth defects.
She has also laid the foundation for and/or assisted with creating 11 other CDH charities and 4 charity alliances. In addition, she is on committees at NICHD, the Global Initiative for Children's Surgery, and the G4 Alliance.
She is a member of Global Genes, NORD, EURORDIS, the G4 Alliance, the UN Civil Society Team, Rare Diseases International, Genetic Alliance UK, CORD, ELSO, WOFAPS, and many other associations for rare diseases and pediatric surgery. She has a keen interest in ensuring that all children in LMICs receive surgical care.
A Point of Light Presidential Award Winner, Dawn has been repeatedly nominated for many awards for her dedication and hard work in the fight against Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.
Dawn is honored to mentor many other cause charities, and she was the first charity leader to set up a 3-prong cause agenda of research, awareness, and support 25 years ago.
In addition to her non-profit work, Dawn is also a paid industry Consultant on Patient Advocacy specializing in navigating the patient landscape and building collaborations between stakeholders. She is also a paid Inspirational Speaker sharing her experiences overcoming tragedies and obstacles to build the world's largest and leading charity for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.
On the personal side, Dawn was the patient advocate for her son, Shane, born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. He survived for 6 and a half years, during which she gave medical care and advocated for better medical care for her very disabled child. For over 2 years, Shane was on a ventilator and oxygen. He had a feeding tube/button and was blind and deaf for most of his life. He never spoke.
She continues to work to save other children like Shane.
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