Dana Deree

Member

​Dana Deree, President of Arkansas Global Connect, is a retired senior-level career member of the U.S. Foreign Service. He served as Consul General in Honduras, Coordinator of American Citizen Services for U.S. Mission Mexico, Deputy Principal Officer and Consul in New Zealand, Chargé d’affaires in Samoa, Co-leader of Provincial Reconstruction Team Kapisa in Afghanistan and as an economic officer in Nicaragua, as well as in other diplomatic assignments in Washington DC and abroad. Dana is a Marine Corps combat veteran and has more than a decade of global experience as a Public Affairs Officer in the Navy Reserve. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he taught AP U.S. Government at Little Rock Central High School. Active in civic affairs in Arkansas, he served as vice chair of the Little Rock Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission.

 In the State Department’s Office of Overseas Services – Adoption Division, Dana oversaw intercountry adoption issues for the Americas, Asia, the Pacific Region, North Africa and the Middle East. He led talks on intercountry adoption in Canada, Mexico, Haiti and Kazakhstan; and worked with several partner countries to expand or re-establish intercountry adoption while protecting the rights of children, biological parents and adoptive parents.

 As a child, Dana experienced homelessness and was a ward of the state from age 10 until he joined the Marine Corps at 17. He holds a Bachelor of Political Science and a Master of Secondary Social Science Education from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He has been married to Stephanie Deree, a social worker, since 1992. They live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and have three sons, the youngest of whom was adopted from Mexico.