Dana received her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a minor in Biology from California State University, Sacramento. She joined the Henn Lab in 2018 as a lab manager and PhD student to study human phenotypic variation in African hunter-gatherer groups. Her research focuses on identifying the genetic architecture of skin pigmentation within the Khoe-San using a genome-wide association approach, and functionally verifying pigmentation genes using CRISPR-driven gene knock-out in zebrafish. Dana is experienced in genetic, phenotypic, and ethnographic data collection from previous fieldwork in South Africa. She intends to return to South Africa for future fieldwork and sample collections during the course of her PhD.