Dawn Kane joined the Duke swimming and diving staff in 2005-06 as an assistant swimming coach and has played an integral role in the development of the program during her seven seasons in Durham.

Duke turned in a successful season under Kane's guidance in 2011-12, as seniors Piotr Safronczyk (100 breaststroke) and Ben Tuben (100 butterfly) earned a 29th-place finish for the Duke men at the NCAA Championships and became the first Blue Devil swimmers to receive All-America honors and score at an NCAA Championships meet in over 30 years. In addition, Safronczyk and Tuben joined Steven Gasparini and Ben Hwang on the Blue Devils' 200 medley relay team that set an Atlantic Coast Conference record with a 1:25.98 clocking in March.

Safronczyk captured the ACC title in the 100 breaststroke and earned All-ACC honors in both breaststroke events to lead the Duke men to a seventh-place finish at the conference meet. The Blue Devils also placed two relays (200 medley, 400 medley) on the podium. On the women's side, Jessica Lyden won the ACC crown on the 3-meter springboard and Christine Wixted took home a pair of All-ACC accolades in the 100 and 200 breaststroke as the squad placed ninth overall.

During the 2010-11 season, Kane witnessed numerous program firsts. Both the men's and women's quads placed in the top 20 at the NCAA Championships, with the men breaking into the top five in the ACC, a goal the team had set since the arrival of head coach Dan Colella. The team set 39 new records, totaled five ACC champions and had two swimmers and three divers qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Both the men's and women's teams have seen consistent improvement since Kane's arrival in Durham. The 2008-09 squads broke a total of 35 school records and produced an ACC Champion, and the 2009-10 teams posted 16 new school records. During that time, Ashley Twichell qualified for the NCAA Championships, where she placed 14th in the 1,650 freestyle.

Kane's first season at Duke saw the men's team finish with a record of 3-6 (1-4 ACC) and the women's team finish with a record of 5-6 (1-5 ACC), with each team posting an ACC dual-meet victory for the first time in a number of years at the same meet in Maryland. Kane helped guide Katie Ness to All-ACC honors, as well as ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III recognition.

A 2002 graduate of Brown University and an eight-year member of the Jamaican National Swimming Squad, Kane brought extensive international and collegiate swimming experience to the Duke program. She is a two-time participant in the Olympic Games, having represented Jamaica in 2000 and 2004, and has earned medals in the Carifta Games, Caribbean Island Swimming Championships, Centro Americano y del Caribe Nataciones and Caribbean and Central American Games. Kane also represented Jamaica at the Pan American Games in 1999 (Winnipeg) and 2003 (Santo Domingo), as well as the Commonwealth Games in 2002 (Manchester) and added even more international experience to her resume when she coached the Jamaican National team at the 2007 World Championship meet in Melbourne, Australia.

Kane graduated in 2002 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Brown, where she was team captain of the swim team her senior year and is still in the record books as a member of the 400 free and 800 free relay teams that set school records in 2001. She was the Ivy League Champion in the 200 free in 2001 and the 100 free in 2002, and participated in the 2002 NCAA Championships.

Kane went on to earn a masters degree in Human Performance at the University of Florida in 2005. While in Gainesville, she worked as a swim instructor for Swim America of Gainesville and the Gator Swim Club.

Kane and her husband, Lee, welcomed the couple's first child, Hayley, in November.