Dana Councilman is a MPP student at the Jackson School of Global Affairs, with an expected graduation in 2025. Prior to coming to Jackson, Dana worked for three and a half years at the Veterans’ Benefits Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Dana’s work primarily focused on determining if veterans were eligible to receive government benefits based on their in-service medical history. Prior to joining the VA, Dana was a Peace Corps Education Volunteer in Liberia. While in Liberia, her primary assignment was teaching mathematics to junior high school students, but she also participated in secondary projects addressing literacy challenges for elementary school students and community-level economic development. While in college, Dana completed a variety of internships, including at the Department of Homeland Security, the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, the Department of Treasury and the United States Senate.
Dana graduated summa cum laude from The George Washington University with a dual degree: a Bachelor of Science with a double major in economics and statistics and a Bachelor of Arts in international affairs. She is intending to continue her career in government service and is particularly interested in the fields of economic development and quantitative policy analysis.