Topic: Dana Perino

Dana Maria Perino (born May 9, 1972) served as the White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush from September 14, 2007 to January 20, 2009. She was the second female White House Press Secretary; Dee Dee Myers was the first, during the Clinton Administration.

Perino was born in Evanston, Wyoming, grew up in Denver, Colorado, and is Italian-American. She attended Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. Perino graduated from the University of Southern Colorado (now known as Colorado State University-Pueblo) in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in mass communications and minors in both political science and Spanish. While attending the university, she was active on the debate team and with KTSC-TV, the campus-based Rocky Mountain PBS affiliate where she served as host of Capitol Journal, a weekly summary of Colorado politics, and producer of Standoff, a weekly public affairs program. From there, Perino attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS). Perino obtained her masters at UIS in Public Affairs Reporting while also working as a daily reporter covering the Illinois Capitol for WCIA, a CBS affiliate.

Perino then went on to work in Washington, D.C., for Representative Scott McInnis (R-CO, Retired) of Colorado as a staff assistant before serving nearly four years as the press secretary for Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO, Retired), who then chaired a House Commerce subcommittee on Energy and Power.