Meet our MVP of the Month - Get to Know Dawn Clay
By Barbara Myers Myers Mason APR

Big Canoe Rotarian Dawn Clay, a dedicated pediatric nurse, embodies a servant’s heart through her extensive community and global service. Since joining Rotary in 2022, she has made significant contributions, earning her the Rotarian of the Year award. Read more about her inspiring journey and the impact she’s made!
It is evident that Big Canoe Rotarian Dawn Clay has a servant’s heart. As a pediatric nurse, she loves the good Rotary does in the community and worldwide. “It makes my heart very happy,” she said.

A Rotarian since 2022, Clay first learned about the organization 25 years ago from her friend and neighbor, Jennie Stipick, a member of the Dunwoody Rotary Club.

“I mistakenly thought Rotary was for business professionals and not for patient-facing nurses,” she said. Upon buying a home in Big Canoe, she learned that a Rotary Club was forming. She attended an informational meeting and was “hooked.”

“I see the positive impact we make on an almost daily basis and I am a part of it. Through Rotary, we can accomplish so much more,” she said.

To date, Clay has served as the Rotary Club of Big Canoe’s Youth Service Director and its Community Service Director. She has worked on the club’s bylaws revision team and helped to establish the club’s Home Medical Equipment Recycling Program in conjunction with the Friends of Disabled Adults and Children or the FODAC organization. She also helped apply for a district grant to fund a trailer needed for the recycling program and coordinates club donations to the county’s Weekend Snack Program that helps feed Pickens County school children.

Her service hasn’t gone unnoticed. Clay was named her club’s Rotarian of the Year by President Susan Schwall at this year’s end-of-the-year celebration.

Her like-minded “Sister in Service” or “Partner in Passion” at the Rotary Club of Big Canoe is Colleen Coulter, a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta physical therapist. They share the same passion and vision for giving back and helping others, especially children and families.
 
Clay is not afraid of a challenge. In 2016, she raised $1,600 for Special Olympics Georgia by rappelling down a 22-story building in Vinings.

“It was exhilarating and so much fun,” she said. “You could see the Atlanta skyline from the reflection on the building. I would 200% do it again!”

A registered nurse with more than 40 years of pediatric experience in hospital and office settings, Clay has worked for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta since 1986. She has held many different roles from a day surgery nurse to a patient care staff nurse to a diabetes educator. As a CHOA employee, she was also provided with numerous volunteer opportunities. She delivered many Career Day talks at local schools, handled balloons at the Children’s Christmas Parade which benefited Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and volunteered for the Art of the Season fundraiser.

Clay earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing in Athens. She has been certified as a pediatric nurse since 1991 and as an ambulatory paranesthesia nurse since 2017.

A member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, she also holds membership in the Georgia Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses, where she served as President-Elect, and in the American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. Another organization that benefited from Clay’s talents was ALS United Georgia. Clay served on the Walk ALS Georgia Planning Committee and as a team captain for several years.


Born in San Antonio, Texas, Clay moved with her family to Georgia when her father took a position in Athens. She has also lived in Augusta and Atlanta.

In 2005, she welcomed her nephew into her home and officially adopted him in 2011. Today, Dawn has three adult children and two grandchildren. She lives both in Brookhaven and Big Canoe, and enjoys giving back to her communities, both locally and internationally.