JoAnn Dawson

JoAnn S. Dawson grew up on a dairy farm in Newark, Delaware, and has been a full-time horse stable owner since 1983. She currently owns and operates Fairwinds Farm & Stables in North East, Maryland, with husband Ted, offering riding lessons, summer camp, trail rides, horse-drawn carriages, pony rides, hayrides, local honey, birthday parties, weddings, and a bed & breakfast.

Fairwinds Farm has been honored as a national finalist in the 2015 Time to Ride Challenge, an inductee of the 2015 Cecil County Business Hall of Fame, 2011 Cecil County Tourism Business of the Year and 2009 Outstanding Farm Operation, and has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and on Good Morning America.

JoAnn works as an animal wrangler for film and TV, and as a Screen Actors Guild member has held principal acting roles in The Sixth Sense, 12 Monkeys, and Oprah Winfrey’s Beloved. She currently plays the role of Karen Mifflin in Hope's Legacy. She is the author of the award-winning Lucky Foot Stable series for ages 8-12 and appears at schools and book signings with her pony, Butterscotch. She is a 4-h leader, former columnist for Cecil Soil Magazine, an appointee to the MD Equine Advisory Committee, a LEAD Maryland fellow, a board member for Cecil County Economic Development Commission and Cecil County Tourism, and she is known nationally for her hilarious and enlightening presentation Bed, Breakfast & Beyond: Twenty years of Kooky Guests, Gentle Ghosts, and Horses in Between - based on her book of the same title.

JoAnn is the mother of two grown sons, Zach and Nick, and teaches both Equine Science and Acting for Stage and Screen at Cecil College in North East, Maryland.