Dana Brinson

Dana leads SparkNC's strategic visioning and alignment. She guides the organization's strategic operations team and its work related to communications, evaluation, development and project leadership. She also collaborates with the program team and external partners to strengthen programs and learner outcomes.

 

Dana has more than two decades of experience as a special educator, consultant, international grant maker, facilitator, and nonprofit board leader. She is driven by a vision of learning that is experiential, inclusive, caring and learner-centered. 

 

Prior to joining SparkNC, Dana founded Consulting Betwixt and served as a transition coach, consultant and guide for nonprofit leaders and others moving through significant periods of change. Before Betwixt, Dana was a program officer at Oak Foundation’s Learning Differences Program where she managed a $20+ million grant portfolio that funded tech, research, professional development, and youth leadership efforts to support the success of students with learning differences such as dyslexia. She was a founding board member of two education nonprofits serving vulnerable student populations. She began her education career as a special educator in a public day school in Boston.

 

Dana holds a master’s degree in European and women’s history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, bachelor’s degrees, with highest honors, in psychology and history from West Virginia University, and a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University.