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Dr. Pauling obtained her B.S. in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. During her time in Alaska she worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Wildlife Veterinary Services conducting disease surveillance. This experience led her to obtain her M.S. in Biology from the University of Central Missouri where she continued researching aspects of wildlife disease and physiological parameters in wildlife. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri in Molecular Pathogenesis and Therapeutics. Her area of research was vector competency of the rat flea in transmitting the plague. 

In 2015, Dawn became an instructor at UCM where she continued conducting research focused on wildlife disease, including pathogen surveillance in wildlife populations, health parameters, ecological parameters impacting disease prevalence and pathogenicity, and vector populations. She has mentored McNair students and served on the committee of several graduate students. As an instructor she has taught Ecology, Animal Biology, Mammalogy, Field Techniques, Wildlife Policy and Law, Wildlife Diseases, and Immunology.

Dr. Pauling researches vector-borne diseases with the majority of my research focused on the transmission of Yersinia pestis by fleas. However, I am currently involved in multiple research projects involving surveillance for pathogens of human health concern in ticks, determining wildlife reservoirs for vector-borne pathogens, impacts of edaphic factors on pathogen prevalence and vector transmission efficiency, whole genome sequencing and annotation of bacterial isolates, and developing molecular tools to increase efficiency of detecting Rickettsia sp. and Francisella tularensis.