Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Dana is the CEO of Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England, where she is laser-focused on ensuring that Girl Scouts is the most relevant, engaging, youth-centered, and inclusive leadership development program available. In this role, Dana leads all strategy, creates systems and structures necessary to meet council goals, and designs the ways in which youth discover their personal best and prepare for a positive future, connect with others in an increasingly diverse world, and take action to solve problems and improve their communities.
Previously, Dana spent nine years as the Executive Director for the Highlander Institute, an education nonprofit organization that partners with communities to imagine and create more equitable, relevant, and effective schools. Under her leadership, the Institute grew exponentially and is seen as a national leader in driving instructional equity.
An anthropologist by training and nerd by heart, Dana is driven by the power of community, music-making, and social justice. She serves on several city, state, and national boards and committees, including RI’s Commission for National and Community Service. As a foster parent, she facilitates the Foster Parent Advisory Council for the RI Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Dana served as Chair of the Board for Trinity Academy for Performing Arts (TAPA), a performing arts charter school in Providence, the Executive Committee for RI National Organization of Women (RINOW), and the Prudential Committee for First Unitarian Church of Providence. She plays saxophone with the Extraordinary Rendition Band, creating raucous noise for social causes. A native Rhode Islander, Dana holds graduate degrees from University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Brown University and lives in Cranston with her spouse and four young children.
