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About Students
Dana was born in Burke County (Icard), North Carolina and lived there with her parents for the first 5 years of her life. Her dad then began college at Gardner-Webb college, now a university. They lived in Boiling Springs, N.C. for 4 years. Her little brother, Michael, was born there in 1984. A year later they moved to Louisville, Kentucky where her dad attended Southern Baptist Seminary and ministered a church for a few years. They lived in Louisville for 13 years. during this time her mother kept an in-home daycare, while two more brothers, Douglas and Daniel (1986 and 1992 respectively) were born into the family. Dana graduated high school in 1993 and went on to complete her B.A. in Psychology at the University of Louisville in 1997. Dana paid her way through college with loans, grants, working as a waitress and later working in a group home for Court Ordered Male Juvenile Offenders. Her parents and brothers moved back to Burke County (Icard), N.C. in May of 1998. Dana followed soon after in June leaving a job as a Teen Counselor at a crisis shelter for runaway teens.
Dana began work as a Crisis Case Manager for Developmentally Disabled adults in August of 1998 at Foothills Area Program in Morganton. In April of 1999, she took a new position within Foothills and began working as Case Manager for adults suffering from Severe and Persistent Mental Illness and functioning as the Burke County Liaison to Broughton Hospital for the area program. During this time, Dana took one graduate level course at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory.
In August 2000 Dana began attending ASU and left full time work in lieu of completing her degree in two years (it's a 60 hour program). She is in the Human Development and Psychological Counseling (HPC) Department, working toward a M.A. in Community Counseling with a concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy. Dana married her wonderful and supportive husband Jonathan in October of 2000. She comes from a long line of musicians and vocalists and Jon has always been in bands. They enjoy music, outside activities and sports, traveling, good food and spending time with friends and family. Their plans upon completion of Dana's Master's Degree in June of 2002 is to go to Europe for a month, and eventually move to Asheville, N.C. Jon also plans to go back to college, and they hope to begin starting a family of their own in the next couple of years!