Dana joined the Ashoka Changemakers team in August 2007. In 2006 Dana graduated from Sarah Lawrence College having focused on International Development and Social Justice. Dana's desire to create social change developed after volunteering and living with families in South East Asia in 2001 with a group called Youth International. It was clear to her that she needed to do something about the poverty and inequality in the world. While doing extensive research on the issue of Hunger in America during her first year at Sarah Lawrence Dana founded and directed "Empty Bellies" a student-based fair food distribution program that collects left over food from the campus dining hall and from local food establishments and then delivers it to nearby communities in need. Dana expanded the program to Purchase College in 2006 while working for the New York Public Interest Research Group as a Project Coordinator at the college. Dana and her Empty Bellies program received national recognition from the International Youth Foundation's YouthActionNet in 2006 when she was selected as one of 20 young leaders who were honored for their diligent social change efforts. Dana is currently working on an online manual to help teach others the process by which to establish similar food rescue and distribution programs in their communities.