Dana Afana is a Metro Detroit-based journalist, telling meaningful and gripping stories about the region’s business, transit and immigration scene.

In 2016, Dana reported in-depth stories of the presidential, state and local elections, and Detroit’s historic comeback. She covered not just the billionaire business leaders pouring dollars into the city but also the local business owners who embody the Motor City’s heart and hustle.

Detroit is a city that lost residents faster than any other major city in the United States. Dana used her reporting as a tool to hold people accountable who are charged with the task of repopulating the city with new residents without losing sight of life-long Detroiters.

Dana covers another major problem in Michigan. Connectivity through mass regional public transit has been a longtime debate among county and state leaders but since 2016, two plans were proposed. She reports how it would connect communities and why leaders and residents support or oppose it. This steered into another series of reports on the lack of public transit as the prime reason for Amazon denying Detroit for its second headquarters.

Dana is a proud graduate of Eastern Michigan University, where she was a distinguished journalism student and earned her B.A. in journalism and political science. Her passion for disseminating news stemmed from the conflict and controversy in the Middle East that she personally witnessed as a child, wondering why so few people were aware of its turmoil. After absorbing some of its political and social issues seen in-person and on the news, Dana, an Arab-Muslim-American woman, knew this was her place to uncover hidden truths–the positives, negatives and in-between.

As she learned from some of the greatest reporters in the industry, she constantly felt a sense of pride and confidence to provide the public with the transparency they deserve, and she is determined never to stop.