Dana White

DANA W. WHITE served as the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and the Chief Pentagon Spokesperson for the Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis. As the senior public affairs adviser for the department, Ms. White provided policy guidance to all branches of the U.S. Armed Services, Combatant Commands and senior civilian leaders. She was responsible for the public affairs career field of more than 4,500 personnel, uniformed and civilian personnel, worldwide.Prior to this role, she was the founder and CEO of 1055 Grady LLC, a leadership and strategic communications consultancy firm in Washington, D.C. that specialized in C-suite consulting, including executives, political appointees and candidates. Ms. White was the Director of Policy and Strategic Communications for the Renault-Nissan Alliance in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. She was a Professional Staff Member on the Armed Services Committee of the United States Senate, a foreign policy adviser on the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal based in Hong Kong. Ms. White served as the Taiwan Country Director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and director of the Washington Roundtable for Asia-Pacific Press at the Heritage Foundation. She was a publicist at the Fox News Channel in Washington and served as deputy press secretary on the U.S. House Republican Conference.She is the recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service and an MIT Seminar XXI National Security Fellow. She authored the book, Leader Designed: Become the Leader You Were Made to Be and serves on the board of directors of the Renew Democracy Initiative, www.rdi.org Ms. White is a native of Charlottesville, Virginia and graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Chinese history.She studied at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, China and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and French. Ms. White resides in Alexandria, Virginia.