From corporate employee to full-time entrepreneur, Dana’s career has evolved from being an in-house digital designer to brand strategist, speaker, and coach to creative professionals.
After undergrad, Dana designed marketing pieces for SunTrust and Wells Fargo and package design for home storage items sold in major retail stores, including Walmart and Target. This experience shaped her understanding of what it takes to protect a brand visually.
With the desire to equip business owners in her community with great design, Dana founded Cheers Creative, a branding and web consultancy. Cheers has grown to include an international client roster full of industry leaders in fashion, music, and entertainment.
In 2015, the creators of the X Theme, one of the best-selling WordPress website builders on the market today, endorsed Dana as a web design and development partner. Through the partnership, Dana built X Theme website templates that empower over 200,000 X Theme customers to create beautiful websites. Dana’s web design work is also featured on various WordPress website showcases around the web.
Through Cheers, Dana teaches brand strategy and design workshops at community events and schools, including Memphis College of Art and the University of Memphis, her alma mater. She co-created and launched a virtual 7-week branding accelerator that helped entrepreneurs nationwide create clear messaging, pivot their businesses, and increase profit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dana’s entrepreneurial journey, writings, design work, and advice have been featured and referenced in multiple publications, including Essence, Forbes, AfroTech.com, and Net Magazine, the world’s largest publication for web designers.
Grow with Google selected Dana to serve as Google Digital Coach for her local Memphis community. Through this program, she provides free digital skills training and coaching to help Black and Latinx small businesses reach new customers, thrive online, and grow.
In 2017, Dana started mentoring middle-school and high-school-age girl entrepreneurs through the non-profit organization Envision Lead Grow. She now serves as a member of its board of directors.
When she’s not contributing to the Memphis arts scene or spending time with her husband and children, Dana spreads her message at national conferences on how creative professionals can build confidence, push past fears, and lead with compassion to win in business.