Dana Mitchell (she / her) has over 20 years of experience supporting organizations and the people within them through change management, talent development, equity design, and educational excellence.She believes that through strong relationships with stakeholders, recognizing people's humanity and reckoning with strengths and areas of growth, communities can disrupt exclusive culture and build inclusive and functional spaces. She has developed and evaluated curricula, trained “trainers”, and strategically planned alongside community stakeholders, executive suite leaders, and funders.

After working with K-12 organizations for over 14 years, Dana served Novastar Prep as an award-winning Learning Coach, while establishing Apples & Chalk, LLC: a professional development consultancy focused on closing the achievement gap by improving school culture and instruction. There, she blended her pedagogical experience with theatre arts, to provide engaging and effective data-driven professional development, culture building workshops, and teacher resources.

Dana later transitioned into educational leadership serving DC’s beloved educators, families, and students. Through pre-pandemic inequities, COVID, and post-pandemic school re-entry, Dana worked to strengthen family relationships, increase staff retention, and employ student supports and interventions across lines of difference. Her success is largely attributed to recognizing the varying lenses that community members bring as assets that create value in a shared space. While juggling the complexity of school leadership Dana completed participated in School Leader Lab’s leader development accelerator. 

In 2022, Dana joined Kindred where she employed her knack for navigating change management and school leadership to support partners in their development of equity-centered, anti-racist communities. Dana used her work experiences at Kindred as a springboard for the establishment of Engaged Spaces. As the Executive Consultant and founder of Engaged Spaces, Dana supports working professionals across the nation by engaging them in meaningful spaces—conversations, consultancies, and coaching sessions—to foster liberated and impactful community experiences. Through executive coaching, advising, strategic planning, and facilitated conversations, Dana’s partners at Engaged Spaces walk away energized, aware, and equipped for both the challenges and triumph ahead.

In her “spare” time, Dana pours into her non-profit, Stories of Our Mothers Collective—a storytelling and advocacy space that centers Black lifegivers and their journeys through conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. She enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, eating crabs, playing Spades, and analyzing movies.

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