In the two short years that I was lucky enough to have
known and worked with Dana, she had a tremendous impact on not only me
individually but also the faculty, students and department as a whole. Dana grew into a professional right before
our eyes. Having been blessed with the
opportunity to work with her both in and out of the classroom, Dana's
inquisitive nature and drive to truly understand the how's and the why's of
what she learned contributed immensely to her success and growth at Loyola. For her capstone, Dana independently learned
how to apply an advanced statistical technique to her data and was most
concerned with understanding the merits of the procedure as opposed to simply
interpreting the results at face value.
It was during these conversations that I knew Dana was a special student
capable of paving a promising career path for herself. She was so proud and excited when she learned
of her acceptance into the CDC program.
But more importantly than any academic and professional
success, Dana was a genuinely good and kind person. She was a teacher to us all. Dana was
constantly helping her classmates in our statistics class because she genuinely
wanted to see them succeed. She lived by
the philosophy that if you win, we all win.
We need more of that in this world.
Dana always lit up a room with her wit, humor and intelligence. She had an uncanny ability to add subtle
lightness and ease to frustrating situations which reminded all of us to not
take life too seriously. We lost a
bright light in this world last week, but we are all forever better for having
Dana as a student and most recently, a colleague. Her impacts on the MPH program at Loyola will
have a lasting effect -- she raised the bar for those around her. For that, and for so much more, I am forever
grateful and honored to have been able to work with Dana. Teachers are often said to inspire students,
but Dana truly inspired me.
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