Dana Fink
Assistant Project Coordinator
Center for Workforce Development
finkd@iel.org
202-822-8405 ext. 132
Dana Fink joined the Institute for Educational Leadership’s Center for Workforce Development in November 2012 as Assistant Project Coordinator. In this role, she supports the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth and DC Advocacy Partners, a program that empowers people with disabilities and their families to become their own advocates and teaches them to navigate local administrative systems. Dana is also responsible for leading social media, communications, and dissemination efforts around the Center for Workforce Development.
Dana comes to IEL from the American Association of People with Disabilities where, as Programs Manager she supported and developed a portfolio of programs around internships, mentoring, and higher education for people with disabilities. Prior to this, Dana worked for Paralyzed Veterans of America and Georgia Public Broadcasting. She is a former summer intern for Senator Tom Harkin's HELP Committee office. Dana also serves on advisory boards for PolicyWorks, an organization that supports mentoring initiatives for people with disabilities and for the Kennedy Center’s VSA Arts which provides arts and education opportunities for people with disabilities and increases access to the arts for all.
Dana graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.A. in International Studies and dual minor in French and East Asian Languages and Cultures. While attending the University of Illinois, Dana studied abroad at the Beijing Language and Culture University where she completed a Capstone thesis project with the China Disabled Persons' Federation.
Dana competed on the University of Illinois Fighting Illini women's wheelchair basketball team on an athletic scholarship. There she was a two-time wheelchair basketball national champion and an Academic All-American winner. Dana is also an internationally competitive rower, training for the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games.