Employee Spotlight: Dana Turner Blair

Rachel Gerner

Dana Turner Blair, writing studio coordinator at the Student Success Center in the CORD.

Working at the University of Arkansas has had a significant impact on Dana Turner Blair's career goals. In 2015, she came to the university to finish her bachelor's degree in English and creative writing. At that time, her goal was to get a doctorate and eventually become a faculty member in an English department, focusing on writing support.

Blair fell in love with teaching composition and literacy classes because it gave her the opportunity to help students grow as writers. As she began her doctoral studies in rhetoric, composition and literacy, she accepted a full-time position as the writing studio coordinator at the Student Success Center.

Two of Blair's five children are attending the university using tuition benefits. She also speaks highly of the university's health benefits and retirement savings.

"The U of A does a really good job with retirement benefits," Blair said. "This is the first time that I've had a full-time position. Before this, I was a stay-at-home mom, a student and a part-time worker, so it's nice to feel like I'm building retirement quickly."

In her short time in the role, Blair has seen great progress in the Writing Studio. Since moving into Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, or The CORD, in January 2022, the studio has seen a remarkable growth in student visits. In fall 2021, 809 students visited the Writing Studio, which increased to 2,432 by fall 2022. This past spring, the Writing Studio assisted 2,541 students. To accomodate the growth and various needs, Blair continually implements new initiatives to improve services, such as in-class workshops and a graduate accountability program.

"What I've learned about myself is that, even if I'm a faculty member with no assigned administrative responsibilities, I'm going to be starting initiatives or finding problems to solve because that's just what I like to do," Blair said.

Implementing new initiatives has provided lots of opportunities for collaboration. When reaching out to departments across campus to create partnerships for writing support, Blair has received immediate responses and created great working relationships.

"The people I've collaborated with have been so great — and that's across campus," she said. "That's from the library to grad student support to engineering."

Blair is thankful to be so involved in a campus and community that is filled with opportunity and freedom to create.

"Other SEC schools seem to all have rival teams in their state. I kind of like that the U of A is the Arkansas team. It's like the mascot for everyone in Arkansas. In that way, it's a unifying place," she said.

Darby Gilliland contributed to writing this profile.

About the Employee Spotlight Series: The employee spotlight series highlights U of A faculty and staff members, the impact they have on campus and the community more broadly, and what makes the university an employer of choice for them individually. Each U of A employee plays a critical role in advancing the 150 Forward strategic priorities: advancing student success, achieving research excellence and enhancing the university's status as an employer of choice. If you have a recommendation of an employee to interview, contact Rachel Gerner at rgerner@uark.edu.