our mission
Peak to Peak is a multi-platform nonprofit providing the advancement of public health through education, creativity, and human connection. Essentially, we take dense science journal articles about public health and distill them down to easily readable content anyone can understand.
our evolution
Created as a space to blend lifestyle, science, nutrition, exercise, gardening, and mindfulness, Peak to Peak descends from things we love and love to research. Our goal is is to present useful, science-based information that enhances the quality of life for individuals and our community.
Our Founder
Dana Carlson
"Dana's words of wisdom here."
Dana has enjoyed a diverse, sixteen-year career in the public health field, focused on clinical research and environmental health. During that time, her experience has spanned clinical work with patients suffering with AIDS and other complications stemming from HIV, research on tick-borne diseases, and testing and remediation of indoor air contaminants. After graduating with her Master of Public Health from Cal Berkeley, she was an evidence, evaluation, and data policy fellow at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dana’s first career was in Internet engineering for tech powerhouses, but her interests naturally steered her into public health. Her initial focus lay in dietary and physical health, then gradually broadened into health policy. Dana’s diverse experiences give her an appreciation not only for the importance of strong health policies, but the need to make them understandable to the broader public who are being served by those policies. Too often, technical data and studies elude public attention and understanding. Dana believes that by making health-related science accessible to the public, policies can be refined to meet the broad needs of the community. Dana founded Peak to Peak to continue educating people using data-driven science.
Active in the American Public Health Association (APHA), Dana reviews policy and papers for publication for the Environmental Health chapter. She is also a member of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiologists (ISEE), the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES), and consults on environmental health policy and projects in the private sector.
Dana lived in various cities on the East Coast and Kauai before landing back in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia. Today, she and her husband are bi-located in the DC area and Charlottesville. Dana loves to research just about anything, work on her forest farm, and advocate for bully-type dogs. You might also see her hiking state high points with her husband—if so, be sure to say hello!