Welcome Aboard, Dawson Knick

Today we welcome aboard Dawson Knick, who will be taking over our Program and Administrative Associate position, replacing Laura Fleischmann. We are sad to see Laura go, but we wish her the best of luck with her new adventures. Dawson’s excited to continue his work with the Village Preservation team, assisting with member services, public programs, special projects, and many things in between.

While Dawson has only been at Village Preservation for a short time, he has previous experience within the field of preservation. Before joining Village Preservation, Dawson worked for the Downtown Development Authority and Georgia Main Street, local government programs that work to revitalize rural communities and preserve historic downtowns. Before that, he worked in natural preservation as an Environmental Education Specialist in Saint Petersburg, Florida and a Communications Intern for the Odom School of Ecology. He received his Bachelor’s in Ecology from the University of Georgia in 2017 and is currently finishing up his Master’s in Public Administration from the University of North Georgia.

Dawson is a recent transplant to New York from Athens, Georgia.  He grew up in a small, rural community 20 minutes from Athens, but now resides right here in the East Village. He is a lucky new resident with only a 5-minute walking commute. What attracted Dawson to Village Preservation was the rich tradition of artists, innovative culture, and reverence for history that have been cultivated in this relatively small portion of the world. He visited last year for the 2018 NYC Pride and immediately fell in love with the Village.

“Experiencing the birthplaces of many of America’s social and civil rights movements ignites a passion to preserve them for future generations. Working for Village Preservation has not only grown my affection for the Village, but it has also grown my general knowledge of history and culture. So much has happened here! I had no idea that so many historical figures and icons had direct ties to the Village. I think the more we can work towards building people’s knowledge on the history of the Village, the easier our job will be in preserving it.”

Dawson is excited to bring his skill sets to the table for this position. In all of his previous positions, he was heavily involved in event management and creating new programs. He hopes to be able to incorporate his background in ecology and natural preservation to showcase how historic preservation and sustainability go hand in hand with one another in future programming.

You’ll continue to see Dawson at our upcoming programs and special events. If you want to reach out and introduce yourself, he can be reached by email at dawson@gvshp.org or by phone at (212) 475-9585 x25.