The economist Diane Dawson was admitted as a Fellow in 1982. She was an American, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on 30 January 1943. Due to her father's post in the US Airforce, she travelled extensively during her childhood. She always attended the local schools, gaining many oratory and debating awards. She earned her BA in Economics and Politics at the University of California at Berkeley and then an MA in Economics. After serving as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, Diane came to Cambridge to become a Lecturer in the Department of Land Economy in 1980. Her research was in public economics with particular reference to health economics. She focussed on policy topics such as the evaluation of patient choice and of NHS performance and contracting, and she was a member of a team that developed a new approach to measuring the outputs and productivity of the NHS for the Department of Health.

At Corpus Diane served as College Lecturer in Economics and Director of Studies in Land Economy and in Economics. She was an undergraduate and postgraduate Tutor, served on many committees and for a short while was Acting Bursar. In 1997 she joined the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York as a Senior Research Fellow. She returned to Corpus Christi in 2006 as a Tutor and was made a Life Fellow of the College. She died on 24 April 2019. On her death, the Master, Professor Christopher Kelly wrote in The Letter, "Diane – in that wonderfully wry approach to things (which made her such refreshingly fine company) – was proud of her achievement as the first female Fellow or Corpus, and pleased that she had lived long enough to see the mission of women securely established as the new normal."

A Bursary in her name is given to support a postgraduate student of any nationality reading for a Master's degree in any subject, with preference given to women applicants.

For the 2003 book Corpus: Within Living Memory, Diane Dawson wrote the following:

"Over drinks, soon after Charlotte Erickson and I had been admitted as Fellows of Corpus, Bernard Williams, then Provost of Kings, was speculating on why Colleges late to elect women as Fellows regularly elected American women as their first female Fellows. I boringly suggested supply and demand: in the late 1970s and early 80s there were relatively more American than English academics. He had a better explanation. To the male College Fellows who had opposed admission of women for so long, American females were not really women — having to sit next to one at High Table would not be like sitting next to a real woman like your daughter, wife or mother!

After the trauma of, for the first time, having to write a female name (in Latin) on a voting slip, they discovered they had elected a card-carrying member of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale). At the request of the new Fellow, beer appeared on the drinks tray in the Master's Lodge. Perhaps my finest hour (in the service of the College) was the defence of the Eagle Public House. The defence was necessary because some of the senior Fellows of the College wanted to close the pub (get rid of uncouth beer drinkers) and turn that historic building into a music practice room or boutique. For a year the battle was fought in the Investment Committee, the Executive Body, the Governing Body, on the streets and in the pubs. With Chris Howe and Raymond Page we founded the 'Interested Users Committee' and we succeeded. Corpus Christi was founded by the City to serve the City. Their first woman Fellow followed in this tradition, fighting for the preservation of an historic City institution.