Dawn Rivers Baker

What if you heard of a woman who grew up in a public housing project in Philadelphia, surrounded by teen mothers and gang violence, herself the product of a single-parent family dependent on welfare?

What if you heard about another woman, who enjoyed all the privileges of an exclusive finishing school followed by an Ivy League university and an exciting career, first in law and then in journalism?

What if I told you that both of those women are Dawn Rivers Baker?

One of the nation’s most prominent of only a handful of experts on microbusinesses, Dawn Rivers Baker has been researching, writing and thinking microbusiness for over a decade. Her activities on behalf of these very small businesses range from offering input on federal legislation to addressing audiences around the globe to serving as the nation’s only microbusiness journalist.

Dawn Rivers Baker is the President and CEO of Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc., and the editor and publisher of The MicroEnterprise Journal.

Dawn Rivers Baker is a member of the Online New Association and a National Partner of Women Impacting Public Policy, where she serves on its Executive Advisory Board. In 2003, the Syracuse New York District of the U.S. Small Business Administration named Ms. Baker as Small Business Journalist of the Year, and she has been selected for annual inclusion in Marquis’ Who’s Who in America® and Who’s Who Among American Women®.

Ms. Baker is also often sought by fellow journalists for her experitse on microbusinesses. She is the exclusive news provider for BusinessOwnersIdeaCafe.com and a regular contributor to the OPEN Forum (American Express) web blog and the Other Voices: On Small Business (US News & World Report) web blog.

Ms. Baker has been a featured guest on Internet radio and podcast shows such as Jim Blasingame’s Small Business Advocate and Small Business Trends Radio with Anita Campbell. She has also been quoted in articles for such publications as US News & World Report, Information Week, CBS Marketwatch.

Ms. Baker is intimately acquainted with both the heights and the depths of human endeavor as a result of a life that has spanned just about every socio-economic lifestyle available in this varied country. She rose out of poverty through education, earning an A Better Chance scholarship that sent her to Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia. From there, she attended Princeton and Columbia Universities and went on to work in legal administration for The Atlantic Recording Corporation and for premier Manhattan-based law firm Rosenman & Colin.

In addition to her work reporting on news and issues for microenterprises, Ms. Baker is the author of several books and papers, including E-Commerce For The Unfunded (2001), The Entrepreneurial Economy (2004), and the epic fantasy novel The Rise of The Phoenix (2002).

Ms. Baker currently lives in the Catskill Mountains region of New York State with her husband of over 20 years and their four children. In her community, she is a parent member of the Committee on Special Education for her local school district.

With a widely varied background that allows her to view the microenterprise phenomenon in the United States from many different perspectives, she brings insight and dedication to her reporting for microbusinesses all across America.