Dawn E. Stephens
Dr. Dawn E. Stephens passed away on November 10th, 2025 at the age of 71 after a short battle with Stage IV urothelial cancer. She was born on February 24, 1954 and grew up in Burbank, California.
She received her BS from the University of California at Davis, her MS from New Mexico State, and her PhD in Physical Education from the University of California at Berkeley. She was a member of AASP as a graduate student almost from its inception and then as a professional and CMPC for many years.
Dawn was a researcher and professor in the Department of Sport, Health, Leisure, and Physical Studies at the University of Iowa from 1993 to 2006. Her area of expertise was the moral and motivational aspects of athletic aggression. She was particularly fond of quantitative methods and approaches, although she learned to tolerate qualitative work with her graduate student colleagues at UC Berkeley first and then later at Iowa. She presented on moral development at national and international conferences as well as to local sport teams and parents. She authored and co-authored many publications and conducted research on specific topics such as aggression in youth soccer and college intramural sports; her work also includes research on moral reasoning and the predictors of aggressive tendencies in female athletes. Dawn embodied her moral and ethical values in her relationships with not only the sport psychology graduate students she worked with but also the professionals she engaged with; when each group was invited to provide sentiments related to Dawn’s impact on them, the overwhelming feeling was, “She was the gauge by which I judged myself as a good person.” Many of her former graduate students continue to make a measurable difference in the world.
But, her influence does not stop there. Dawn was like a grand redwood tree, native to her home state of California. She only grew deeper and richer with time. She felt like an old soul to many, weathered and worn-in and trustworthy, having lived many lives within her one life and having withstood many challenges with fierce resiliency. She talked the talk and walked the walk.
For one thing, she was a long-time accomplished builder and fixer of anything. In retirement, she built a house in Mexico, became fluent in Spanish, met and married her wife, adopted their son when she was 57 years old, and worked on a project she was always meant to do. Inspired as a child by her love of animals and her female next-door neighbor who was a veterinarian - and with a level of intention and thoughtfulness that only Dawn could have for a passion project - she put her vision for a horse rescue/sanctuary into action. Along with her family and a small number of local volunteers, any horse that roams the streets or is reported as mistreated and abandoned in their area is rescued and reclaimed. Dawn developed much good will within her community – engaging in community praxis - by helping local owners in need of services such as free veterinary treatment to all rescues and helping rescues find loving relationships through sponsorship and forever homes.
Always the teacher, Dawn’s vision at the time of her death was to continue to collaborate with veterinarians and veterinary training programs to formalize their partnership and raise enough funds to build an operating hospital on the grounds. This was so that matriculating veterinary students in nearby areas could do their residency at the sanctuary.
Dawn is survived by her wife Tina Jo, their son Nathaniel, beloved AASP friends and colleagues, former students, and the many volunteers who continue to work at the sanctuary.
A longer tribute can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10229992885475915&set=a.10203650788659958
Anyone wishing to contribute to Tina Jo’s Promise can also do so at https://tinajospromise.org/
Respectfully submitted,
Leslee A. Fisher, PhD
Professor Emerita, the University of Tennessee
