Dawna Stone, founder and publisher of Her Sports magazine, gave up her fast track corporate career to merge her two main passions, sports and business, into her dream company. Dawna founded Her Sports in July 2003 and published the first issue in December 2003. (Read the entire Her Sports story here.) The magazine was a success from the start, winning a 2004 Charlie Award for Best New Magazine and being recognized as one of the 30 Most Notable Launches of 2004 (out of over 1,000 new magazines). Dawna's efforts have been recognized by industry heavyweights like Steve Forbes and Samir Husni ("Mr. Magazine").

As a strong advocate of improving women's health and fitness, Dawna has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including her popular monthly healthy living segment on Good Day Tampa Bay. She is also a sought after public speaker.

Dawna had an interesting career before founding Her Sports. At 33 she was the Chief Marketing Officer for a $700-million publicly traded company, directing the marketing activities for over 68 locations nationwide. Dawna's other experience includes:

• Senior Vice President of the Active Sports Network, then a 200-person dot com company that is still thriving today with over 300 employees
• President and General Manager of a $20-million sports nutrition company
• Strategy Consultant for Deloitte Consulting where she advised senior level executives at Fortune 500 companies
• Financial Analyst for Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley

Dawna earned her MBA at The Anderson School at UCLA and her B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sports have always been, and remain, an integral part of Dawna's life. She started swimming competitively at age 5, competed in the Junior Olympics and earned MVP honors in swimming all four years of high school. Nearly 20 years later, she still holds the school record in the 50-yard freestyle.

Dawna currently competes in triathlons. Over the last 10 years she has qualified for age-group nationals and world championships several times. In 1999 she finished the grueling Hawaii Ironman World Championships. She is also an avid road cyclist, snow and water skier and loves trying new sports like kite-boarding and mountain scootering.

Dawna lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., with her husband, Matt, and their two dogs, Buffett and Valkyrie (Val).