Dawn Mikkelson

3-time Emmy Award winning producer, and 2010 McKnight Filmmaking Fellow, Dawn Mikkelson’s work has broadcast and screened internationally. Festival screenings include: the Galway Film Fleadh, Cinequest, DOC NYC, Heartland Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Mill Valley Film Festival. Broadcast includes PBS and the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

Mikkelson has completed seven award-winning independent feature documentaries, Minnesota Mean (2023), Finding Her Beat (2022), Risking Light (2018), The Red Tail (2009), Green Green Water (2007), THIS obedience (2003), and Treading Water: a documentary (1999). Mikkelson recently became an Cultural Envoy for the US State Department through their American Film Showcase program, in collaboration with USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, representing Finding Her Beat.

A former television news reporter at an ABC affiliate, Mikkelson has taught Documentary Film as Adjunct Faculty at Ottawa University in Kansas, as well as at Film North. Most recently she served as Broadcast Content Manager at PBS North in Duluth, MN. Over her time at PBS North the station and its productions quadrupled their Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Award Nominations including the coveted Governor’s Award, and received national acclaim by NAJA (Native American Journalist Association).

Based in Lake City, Minnesota, Mikkelson is a proud member of the Film Fatales Minnesota Chapter and a board member of the DPA (Documentary Producers Alliance), as well as Co-Representative of the Midwest Region and Member of the Ethics Committee.