Dana Smirin

Dana Smirin is a systems thinker and has held roles as a thought partner and consultant in sustainability ranging from land use to clean technology in academia, non-profit, government and private sectors. She has founded and operated businesses in waste and health sectors. Her career began in the Projects Unit at Friends of the Earth in London, moving her into environmental policy work in Washington DC. Smirin then moved to California engaging in multiple initiatives around utility restructuring. In parallel, her work in her birthland, South Africa, was in land use and food security. Smirin was the Development Director of Fauna Flora International focused on land conservation and use. Later Smirin was awarded the American Council on Germany Fellowship where she lived in Europe focused on climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. This led to her role as Special Aide to the Dean in the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley. A health sabbatical had her return to South Africa where she lived on the first African farm to trade carbon from growing it regeneratively in the soil. The farm is a showcase for regenerative farming practices and portions of the land are farmed biodynamically, selling into South African markets. Her role at the Dutch Business in Development Network exposed her to fair trade and other related food movements and transition programs for large scale farms into regenerative agriculture.

Dana lives between California and Cape Town and for fun tours farms and walled gardens anywhere she can.