Dawn Dekle is currently the fourth president of the American University of Nigeria (AUN). Before joining AUN, Dr. Dekle was president of Orkhon University in Mongolia, the first university to open after the transition from a Communist regime. Prior to that, Dr. Dekle was president of the American University of Iraq, provost at the American University of Afghanistan, and dean at the S. P. Jain School of Management in Singapore. Dr. Dekle completed her PhD from Dartmouth College.

Before becoming a senior administrator, Dr. Dekle was a faculty member at Singapore Management University, the National University of Singapore, James Madison University, and Dartmouth College. Dr. Dekle has held leadership positions outside of academia, such as council member for the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and leadership specialist and global knowledge manager at the McKinsey & Co, where she helped launch the McKinsey Center for Asian Leadership.

As a scholar of psychology, leadership, law and management, Dr. Dekle has published in academic journals, presented at international conferences, given keynote addresses for the Young Presidents Organization, and served as an analyst for television and radio for the then US President Obama and his strategies in Asia and the Middle East.

A lawyer by training, Dr. Dekle worked in both Afghanistan and Iraq to help bring Western-style law programs into university curricula. In July 2015 when she became president of Orkhon University, she led efforts to increase enrolment from across the nation, increase ties between the university and the international business community, and move the university toward implementing an all-English curriculum.