Dawn Peters areas of interest include clinical trial methodology and observational methods. Prior to joining OHSU in 2003, Peters was awarded a National Institutes of Health K-25 Career Development Award, which allowed her to work at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research for two years. She collaborated with investigators on a variety of projects and conducted research in randomization for clinical trials.

Before the NIH award, she was an associate professor of statistics at Oregon State University, where she conducted methodological research and taught undergraduate and graduate statistics courses.