My early years were spent in Berkeley, then Orinda, making me a California girl. I had to stay in-state for college and got lucky: Scripps College, the women’s college in the Claremont CA cluster, graduated in 1964. We entered at the cusp of the sixties when serving formal tea was still a tradition. But change was underfoot. I was the first to graduate in international relations and my senior honors thesis was on Pan-Africanism.

The financial industry called me – where the men and the money were. It took years to make my way from secretary, which is not really the worst start other than the shame that comes with it, if you are interested in gaining perspective on how a business is run.

A very big break came when I was assigned to onsite research project at the NYSE. By day I collected trade data with a bunch of programmers giving me the runaround. By night, went to the New School to learn programming and licked stamps for Bella Abzug. Great time to be in New York. When we marched down Fifth Avenue on behalf of women’s equality, I was in the second row behind Gloria Steinem.

Back in San Francisco, luck allowed me to parlay my NYSE experience to be hired as the first investment measurement analyst in a new department within a brokerage firm. Turned out this was the beginning of a huge entrepreneurial expansion in the industry and I became the first woman officer in the firm finally ending up in charge of the entire inside staff.

The money did not reflect the responsibility. After four years working to the top job on the inside, a meeting was called by me to address the next step and here are the exact words from the chairman of the company: “Dana, you can’t be a consultant, you’re a woman and our clients won’t listen to you.”

That was 1975. Exactly one year later to the day on April 1st, I opened the door of the first creative agency to focus on marketing for institutional investment firms. Over 25 years we became respected as a thought leader in investment marketing and won multiple design awards while helping a broad range of money-manager clients bring on billions in assets. 

On the sidelines we conceived of an eight-part PBS series on the art of Investing, with a companion book published by John Wiley. While filming on the floor of the NYSE, we watched Donald Trump standing with his parents and Marla Maples waiting to hear the official bell as his company became listed on the exchange.

I then put down part-time roots in Wilmot, New Hampshire, in 1995, buying and remodeling the town’s volunteer firehouse. All would agree it was a broken-down garage. What I saw was an industrial NY Soho loft right in the center of a 500-family village. Once a team from HGTV came through town looking for a house that once was something else. The Old Firehouse was selected for a segment on Rezoned.

The remodel was complete in 2001 and residency became fulltime. New England had won me over. No stop lights. A strip town where there’s every store and doctor’s office to meet your needs. Back roads where you know the frost heaves in winter. 

Was not retired, gradually became involved in local Wilmot happenings – we went from a backwater place whose population had shrunk to those left behind to the town you wanted to live in. What we promoted was “the mix” – old/young/rich/really poor/artists/business/local/from elsewhere. Wilmot had not become segmented. We came together and I promoted that in our marketing.

An opportunity chance to become part of the NH Writers’ Project with an ED – a huge talent -- and a board that was truly functional. We had impact. I was invited to join the board of the NH Womens’ Fund and enjoyed its birth and early years where the concept itself had to be sold to early adopters. Great creative group of women on the board from across the state and a brilliant founding ED.

I was just turning 60, the date I promised myself to begin the “return phase” of life. A mentor planted the seed. She had gone on a trek to Nepal and left knowing she would be coming back to help the children in rags living on their own under bridges. She was 60. I offered her pro-bono marketing consulting and she invited me to see her work on the ground in Kathmandu. 

How was I as an individual going to start something of my own. How do you know what you’re meant to do. Most definitely out of our gated country, to operate where resources are slim and the dollar can go far. Something that relies on an entrepreneurial model, women-focused, limited to a definable geographic setting where I as an individual coming to help would not be immediately overwhelmed. Where there was a chance to witness impact, celebrate it, share what we learned and build on it in a modest way.

I was within the two-year mark of my birthday deadline and even the scantiest ideas were not manifesting. Until one sunny afternoon walking down Campground Road in front of my old Wilmot firehouse, I literally heard a voice: “You’re going to go to Africa, find a village and start a microlending program.” The idea came out whole. And that’s what I did.

It took 27 trips to the village of Pokuase -- at the outskirts of the capital Accra -- until I stepped down in 2012. We founded WomensTrust and had remarkable impact on the lives of villagers as well as on the lives of all who came from my town and around the world – interns, volunteers, students on research missions, teachers, others looking for villages they could adopt next door. It was quite a ride, the work was intense. I officially became a bottom-up girl.

To celebrate my 80th birthday in 2023, I moved back to Mill Valley CA to reside at The Redwoods, known for “Seniors for Peace” who demonstrate for peace every Friday outside on the curb. I’m currently writing a book about going bottom-up to inspire others to create social-change.