Dana is the Co-Founder of World Savvy, a national education nonprofit working to educate and engage youth as responsible global citizens. She led the organization as CEO for 23 years, supporting change agents in K-12 education to create more inclusive, adaptive schools that ensure all young people can develop the skills and dispositions needed to thrive in a more diverse, interconnected world. From 2002-2025, she shepherded the organization through significant national expansion, reaching nearly 1M+ young people, 7,000+ educators, and school leaders across 38 states and 28 countries, from offices based in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and New York.  

Dana has been widely recognized as a leading social entrepreneur and education expert. She is an Ashoka Fellow, was named one of The New Leaders Council’s 40 under 40 Progressive American Leaders, and received the Tides Foundation’s Jane Bagley Lehman award for excellence in public advocacy in 2014. She is a frequent speaker on global education, social impact, and social entrepreneurship at high-profile convenings nationally and internationally, and her work has been featured on PBS, The New York Times, Edutopia, and a range of local and national media outlets covering education and innovation. She is a Board member and Advisor to multiple philanthropic, nonprofit, and educational institutions, including Macalester College, The Alongside Network, Teaching for Equity, Empowerment and Community Healing (TEECH), The Mortenson Family Foundation, the Millennium Campus Network, The Institute for Humane Education, Tilting Futures, and the TransAction Alliance, among others. Her work pushes progress at the intersection of education, democracy, and human rights, and supports organizations and individuals looking to couple passion and vision with strategy and pragmatic thinking about doing the most good.