Dana Schaffer oversees the internal operations of the Association and leads the development and implementation of systems, processes, and operational strategies to support the AHA’s mission. She also serves as secretary to the AHA Council, managing governance processes and policies. Dana has planned and directed the Association’s Bridging Cultures for Community Colleges curriculum program, the inaugural “Future of the African American Past” conference at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the History, Past and Public Culture National Survey, and the Doctoral Futures program.
Dana has worked in the history discipline and with historians for over two decades. Prior to joining the AHA staff in 2013, Dana served as the assistant director at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. She previously coordinated educational travel programs for the Smithsonian Associates and directed an oral history project on the 1968 unrest in Washington, DC. Dana’s work has appeared in Washington History and TIME. Dana holds a BA in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA in public history from American University.