Parents Requesting
Open Vaccine Education, or PROVE
[back] Vaccine groups
[Dawn Richardson and Rebecca Rex are co-founders.]
Website:
Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education
(PROVE--Texas)
Articles
[2010 march] No More
Fear by Dawn Richardson
Dawn Richardson is President and Co-founder of
PROVE (Parents
Requesting Open Vaccine Education) in Austin, Texas. An activist Mom who has
built a statewide parent rights advocacy network, Mrs. Richardson led a highly
successful twelve year public information campaign in Texas and in the Texas
Legislature to promote awareness about vaccine safety, medical privacy and
informed consent issues. Her work has contributed to positive legislative
changes, including the passage of a statewide conscientious belief exemption to
vaccination, the vacating of a gubernatorial executive order for mandatory HPV
vaccines for 6th grade girls, and institution of medical privacy protections in
a statewide vaccine tracking system and a newborn DNA storage system.
Dawn graduated with a BS in
electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut and her vocational and
educational experience in science and computer engineering has helped to shape
her leading role in the criticism of mandatory one-size-fits-all vaccine
policies and vaccine tracking systems. She has appeared in many media reports in
Texas and nationally defending parents’ right to refuse vaccines. Her February
2007 appearance on the NBC “Today Show” calling for the repeal of the Texas
Governor's Executive Order mandating Gardasil vaccine for all sixth grade girls
was instrumental in raising public awareness in Texas that the Executive Order
should be overridden by the legislature.