Dawna Friesen (born October 8, 1964) is a Canadian television journalist, currently the chief anchor and executive editor of Global National.

[2] While at NBC, Friesen covered stories out of London as well as the Middle East, including the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the kidnapping and murder of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

[3] She won a News & Documentary Emmy Award as a correspondent in NBC's coverage of the 2008 United States presidential election.

She then moved back to Manitoba to attend Red River College and worked as a waitress when she was young.

Friesen graduated from RRC's Creative Communications program in 1984, and began her journalism career working in Brandon, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg.