Dana R. Bennett, Ph.D. was most recently the Interim President of the Nevada Mining Association and before that, Interim Executive Director of the Guinn Center. Dr. Bennett is the former President of the Nevada Mining Association and served on the Guinn Center’s Advisory Council for nearly seven years. A lifelong Nevadan with more than three decades of public policy experience in her home state, Dr. Bennett has served as a Regional Director for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and as Governor Brian Sandoval’s Senior Researcher.
She began her policy career at the Nevada Legislature where she served as the Staff Director for Nevada’s Committee on Public Lands for nearly a decade and also staffed policy committees concerned with state and local government operations, technology in education, health care, and natural resources. Between her tenures in the legislative and executive branches of state government, Dr. Bennett spent many years in the private sector, operating a policy research business and employed as a legislative advocate with clients in mining, educational innovation, insurance, and construction, among others. With an abiding curiosity about Nevada, she took a break in her career to earn a PhD in history from Arizona State University.
Her dissertation explored the intersection between women legislators and tax policy development in Nevada before 1960. Dr. Bennett has authored three books and more than 50 articles, reports, and other publications. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum and serves as President of the Mining History Association and President of Friends of Midas. She lives in rural Elko County.
