Dana, her husband, Michael Persons, and 3 boys (plus one foreign exchange student) have lived in Midtown for over 20 years. Dana has served on the MNA board for 6+ years. The family continues to help Midtown grow into a neighborhood that is vibrant and community friendly. In this endeavor, Dana is a member of the Midtown Parents Group and serves as liaison to the Midtown Parents Group (as needed). She currently chairs the Midtown Education Committee and the Midtown Transportation Committee.
On the traffic committee, she has headed up traffic calming studies, safe routes to school, helped secure residential permit parking for the north end of Myrtle St., and now serves as a liaison to neighbors with respect to ParkAtlanta. She serves as Block Captain for the Midtown Neighborhood Watch. She is an active member of the License & Permits Committee, and is currently working to balance the City’s growing number and size of the festivals in Piedmont Park with the neighborhood needs and Quality of Life. Dana has also worked on the Celebrate Midtown week and headed up a student art contest “I heART Midtown”, Shop and Dine, Midtown Tour of Homes, Quality of Life Committee’s sidewalk initiative, the Midtown Cleanup, Midtown Historic Preservation, National Night Out, Midtown License & Permits Committee, and Midtown Land Use committees. Most recently, Dana submitted two applications for the “Love Your Block” city grant ($1000) on behalf of the MNA and with Grady HS’s help, installed planters and decorative iron fencing around the boxes on 10th St. With future grants, she hopes to install planter boxes and decorative fencing all the way down 10th from Myrtle to Monroe.
In her role as Midtown Education Chair, Dana maintains MNA’s Education Committee webpage, and reports on educational opportunities and issues that affect Midtown and the intown area. This includes any information on local public schools, private schools, and adult education. The “I heART Midtown” student art contest (part of Celebrate Midtown Week) fell under the Education Committee. She also distributes donations/grants from the MNA to deserving educational initiatives. Under the Education Committee you’ll also find the thriving Midtown Book Club. In a separate but related capacity, she also serves as co-President of CINS (Council of Intown Neighborhoods & Schools) representing the Grady HS Cluster of schools (this includes all elementary and middle feeder schools) http://www.cinsatlanta.org. She also served as an ad hoc liaison for Midtown to the Inman MS Capacity Task Force, and she chaired the Grady HS PTSA nominating committee for 3 years. She also attends the meetings of the Alliance of Intown Neighborhoods to help collaborate with the surrounding neighborhoods on education, traffic and safety initiatives. The website is at http://www.allianceatlanta.org.
Professionally, Dana holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University, with a heavy concentration in chemistry from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. Formerly with major petrochemical firms Dow Chemical, Union Carbide, and Amoco Chemical, Dana is now VP for a small consulting firm in industrial plastics and chemicals, IntellaBuy, Inc. Dana now helps her clients manage their supply chain and recycle initiatives while providing engineering and logistical support. Dana also serves as a local coordinator for CIEE (Council for International Education Exchange) www.ciee.org; in this role, Dana finds host families for and supervises international high school exchange students attending intown high schools. Obviously, Dana can’t say “no!”
