Staff: Marilyn Manzo-Dawson

Marilyn Manzo-Dawson is the Executive Director of Friends of the Children’s first Texas chapter. She joined Friends Austin as the founding Program Director in 2017, when the organization first launched, and over the next seven years, built the program from the ground up—growing a team of over 30 professional mentors and expanding services to nearly 200 children across the Austin area.

Marilyn holds a B.S. in Business Economics and Sociology from the University of California, Irvine. After college, she began her nonprofit journey working in a group home for adolescents in foster care. Since moving to Austin in 2015, she has designed and led programming for grassroots nonprofits, managed early childhood outreach in Travis County, and discovered her deep passion for mentoring.

Marilyn has served as a volunteer mentor to the same young woman for more than nine years. She is also a full-time mentor, or "Friend," to one of the original youth from Friends Austin’s inaugural cohort. Marilyn is the first Executive Director within the Friends of the Children national network to simultaneously serve a child as a Friend.