Dawn Blackburn Cole
About Dawn Blackburn Cole
Dawn Blackburn Cole serves as the Lead IT Quality Assurance & Governance at Brown-Forman, where she leads a Process Improvement Team to define IT processes for predictable outcomes. With a background in change management and various IT certifications, she has extensive experience in quality assurance and governance in the IT sector.
Work at Brown-Forman
Dawn Blackburn Cole has been serving as the Lead IT Quality Assurance & Governance at Brown-Forman since 2016. In this role, she leads a Process Improvement Team that focuses on defining IT processes and procedures to achieve predictable outcomes. She manages automated testing by collaborating with both internal and external partners to establish testing strategies and quality standards. Additionally, she is responsible for preparing and distributing Requests for Proposals to secure IT services, ensuring effective communication and consistency across the organization.
Previous Experience at Kindred Healthcare
Before joining Brown-Forman, Dawn Blackburn Cole worked at Kindred Healthcare for a total of ten years. She served as a Change Management Manager from 2008 to 2016 and as a Change Management Analyst from 2006 to 2008. During her tenure, she contributed to change management processes and played a key role in implementing strategies that facilitated organizational transitions in the Louisville, Kentucky area.
Education and Certifications
Dawn Blackburn Cole has a solid educational background in technology and leadership. She studied at Elizabethtown Community College, where she earned an Associate in Applied Science in Computer and Information Technologies from 1993 to 1996. She has achieved several certifications, including ITIL V2 in 2007, COBIT v4.1 in 2011 from ISACA, and ITIL v3 in 2011 from New Horizons, which she has been pursuing since 2013. Additionally, she completed the Foundations of Leadership program at the Center for Creative Leadership in 2009.
Early Career at Bluegrass Cellular
Dawn Blackburn Cole began her career as an Internet Support Technician at Bluegrass Cellular, where she worked for one year from 1997 to 1998 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. This early experience provided her with foundational skills in technical support and customer service, contributing to her subsequent roles in change management and IT quality assurance.