Dana Olds is IFES' Deputy Chief of Party in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has worked with several organizations in African countries such as the African Centre for Human Development in Ghana, the United States Peace Corps, World Links for Development, the Digital Freedom Initiative and the 10,000 Girls Education Program in Senegal. She is also a co-founder and the associate director of The One World Foundation of New York, Inc. One World is a foundation with the mission to encourage more people of color to become engaged and pursue careers in human rights and development. Through summer exchange programs, One World works to "Link Global Youth Leaders for Social Change."

Olds focuses on the integration of information technology into the primary and secondary educational systems of developing nations; NGO-state relations; disarmament; demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants; microfinance and women's rights. The article she co-authored, "Micro-Credit Social Capital and Politics: The Case of a Small Rural Town - Gossas, Senegal," was published in the Summer 2005 edition of the Journal of Microfinance.

Olds holds a B.A. in International Relations and Japanese from Lincoln University and a Master of Public Administration degree from Rutgers University. She has also done graduate study at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the University of Virginia.