When our Editor in Chief asked Dana and I to write each other’s introductions for The Local Pulse there was definitely a brief awkward silence. We had only just met each other, how are we supposed to write about each other? Well, as it turns out, pretty easily.
Finding out that Dana is from Arkansas was the first giveaway that we were going to hit it off. Being from the middle of America myself, us midwesterners like to stick together. Then, when I read Dana’s first article for The Local Pulse about Pariel the Pelican replacing ‘a little chunk of fur from the country of somewhere, not in Florida who try’s to ruin our lives each Groundhog Day,’ I not only liked her, I wanted to be like her and I wanted to be around her.
She’s unassumingly funny and her Southern accent is the perfect compliment to her wit, humor, beauty and authenticity. Her Southern style of storytelling will have you grinning and giggling over your phone anxiously waiting for another article from her. The topics she chooses to write about are relatable to anyone and everyone because she doesn’t take life too seriously and can find the irony in everyday life happenings.
Dana, we weren’t cut from the same cloth, maybe not even from the same store, but we compliment each other well and I am honored to be working with you on The Local Pulse. You reignited my love for writing and make me want to write more and write well.
~Elli Gentile
The important stuff I wanted to know about Dana:
Best new title you’re being called these days? Lifestyle Editor, The Local Pulse
Go to Karaoke song? Let’s Give them Something to Talk About – Bonnie Raitt
Do you use your own Netflix account or someone else’s? My own
Cannon ball into the pool or dip a toe in first? Dip a toe
Time travel to the past or the future? The past
Dream job as a child? I had a lot…an attorney, a painter or in highschool an SNL character
What could you eat for a week straight? A protein bar, it’s kind of boring
Speak every language in the world or speak to animals? Every language
Scale from 1-10, how good of a driver are you? Uh a TEN!
Favorite restaurant in Pensacola? Global Grill
LA or New York? LA
Favorite holiday? My kid’s birthdays
Country you want to visit? Scotland
If you could pick any song to play every time you walk into a room, which would it be? She Burns by Foy Vance
Dana is an Arkansas native and a seasonal resident of the Gulf Coast since childhood. She was a Pensacola resident for 13 years, before moving to Gulf Breeze. Dana attributes her Mayberry-esque childhood in Warren, Arkansas, as enormously influential in honing her definitely Southern style of storytelling. She earned a degree in Journalism, Advertising/Public Relations from the University of Arkansas (Woo Pig Sooie!). In addition to writing, she loves photography, art, adventures in the great outdoors, and spending time with her three children.
