Dawn Clark Netsch (September 16, 1926 – March 5, 2013) was an American professor of law at Northwestern University and an Illinois politician. A member of the Democratic Party in the United States, she served in the Illinois State Senate from 1972 to 1990, and as the Illinois Comptroller from 1991 through 1994. In 1994 she was the first woman to be nominated by a major political party to run for Governor of Illinois. She co-authored the legal textbook, State and Local Government in a Federal System.