Neighbors First Families

Chandra Dawson, LISW, LCSW is an Independently Licensed Social Worker dually licensed in the District of Columbia and Maryland. Her professional career includes over 20 years of social work practice serving various marginalized populations primarily comprised of communities of color. A substantial portion of her career involves designing, managing, and implementing programs designed to meet the multifaceted needs of the underserved. She has years of organizational experience including case management, crisis intervention, training, project management and senior leadership within organizations serving domestic and sexual violence survivors, homeless families, and other vulnerable populations within the District of Columbia. Chandra’s background includes federal contract coordination and management as well as the design and implementation of training and technical assistance to support the complex needs of local and state systems such as TANF, behavioral health and homeless services. Her ability to establish and maintain vital relationships with organizations across systems has contributed to developing formal partnerships vital to trauma survivor safety, healing, and equitable service accessibility. Chandra is deeply committed to the development of trauma prevention and intervention efforts designed to address the intersecting issues of racial, gender and economic oppression.

Chandra is also the founder of The MACRO Project Inc., a social work consulting practice providing ethical trauma-informed services to groups, organizations and agencies representing various systems. As founder, she provides consultation and training to organizations and licensed professionals addressing topics such as intersectional trauma-informed service provision, domestic & sexual violence programing, multicultural intervention, worker bias and more. Chandra is a former 2020 Leadership Education and Advancement for Professionals (LEAP) fellow, a program funded by the Office of Violence Against Women.

Chandra holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore with a practice interest in Social Action and Community Development.