Dawn Bonner is an English umpire, umpire coach and umpire manager. Dawn has been involved in hockey for most of her life, first as a player with Ealing Ladies’ Hockey Club during the 1980s and 1990s before qualifying as a Level 2 umpire in 1992 in the South region. Since then, Dawn has been involved with umpire coaching, assessing and umpire management. She joined the National Programme Umpiring Association (NPUA) in 2009 and became a FIH Umpire Manager in 2014. As of 2023, Dawn is the Vice Chair of Officiating with responsibility for overseeing Development and Appointing for the NPUA in England. She is a member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group for England Hockey and an England Hockey Vice President. In this interview, Dawn discusses her childhood, route into hockey, umpiring qualifications and assessments, training to become an umpire manager, mentoring, and good and bad approaches to umpiring. As a black woman, Dawn also highlights the racism and gender inequality she has experienced both within hockey and in her career in insurance outside of hockey.

Image: courtesy of Dawn Bonner