Dana Adrienne Ponte has been a consultant with Criticality Management Consulting (CMC) since 2010 and is a founding consultant with Campus Diversity Agenda (CDA). Her work in higher education diversity is grounded in a thorough understanding of internationalization and globalization issues as they impact American campuses. A specialist in Russian and Eurasian affairs, Dana holds a bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) in Russian from the University of Oregon, and a master’s in Russian and Central Asian studies from Harvard University. She is a candidate for the doctorate of philosophy in Higher Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Washington, where she divides her time between the policy history and sociological facets of higher education.
Dana is a skilled interviewer in the qualitative research tradition. She has worked with CMC on its campus diversity strategic action plans, formulating and conducting comprehensive interviews and focus groups that address all stakeholders in higher education institutions. Dana’s strengths in writing and editing have been utilized by CMC in producing its internal and external reports. With nearly a decade of experience working in the non-governmental and non-profit sectors, Dana is CMC’s expert on programmatic assessment, outcomes identification, and institutional best-practices.Dana’s personal commitment to diversity in higher education is buttressed by her expertise in the history and federal policy environment surrounding diversity advancement in the United States. Her work has particularly been focused on the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities. In partnership with CMC, she provides management oversight to the Association for Underrepresented Minority Fellows (the AUMF), the nation’s largest scholarly association of African American biomedical scientists and researchers.Dana is a member of the American Association of Educational Researchers, the History of Education Society, and the American Association for Eurasian and East European Studies. She serves on the editorial team of the policy journal Problems of Post-Communism, and is based in Washington, DC.