Dana W. White

At the Pentagon she briefed reporters on the April 2018 strikes on Syrian chemical weapons sites, but her on-camera briefings ended that May and her relations with the press corps were often strained. In August 2018 CNN reported that the Department of Defense inspector general was investigating complaints from her staff. The inspector general's report, released in July 2019 after she had left, found that she had misused subordinates' time for personal errands and accepted gifts from them, and did not substantiate a complaint that she had treated staff disrespectfully. White said the report had "unfairly maligned acts of kindness done in every office in the Pentagon".

After leaving government she returned to her consultancy, 1055 Grady, and in April 2020 became the first chief communications officer of Hyundai Motor North America, a post she held until November 2022. In March 2023 she joined Ankura Consulting Group to lead its global strategic advisory practice, and she is now managing partner of Juno Collective, a communications firm in Baltimore, Maryland. She is on the boards of the International Republican Institute and the National Bureau of Asian Research and wrote the leadership book Leader Designed (2016). She is not the Dana White who is president of the UFC.

Early life and education

White grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her grandfather, Randolph Lewis White (1896–1991), rose from janitor to supervisor at the University of Virginia Hospital, helped its Black employees form a union, and founded the Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune, a weekly newspaper for the city's African American community. White has said that as a child she cut advertising sheets, wrote copy and processed photographs at the paper, and that it taught her "the power of words".

She graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian languages and civilizations, and studied at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. She has said she chose Mandarin because "at the time, nobody was thinking about China" and she wanted a skill that would stay valuable. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and French, and the International Republican Institute's biography of her adds basic Korean. She was later a national security fellow in the Seminar XXI program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career

Government, journalism and business

After college White moved to Washington, D.C., without a job and worked as an intern and a temp while she applied for positions on Capitol Hill. Her first post was deputy press secretary for the House Republican Conference, which she held until 2000; she then spent a year as a publicist for Fox News Channel in Washington. At The Heritage Foundation she directed the Washington Roundtable for the Asia-Pacific Press, a program for correspondents from Asian news organizations. She was Taiwan country director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and wrote editorials for The Wall Street Journal from Hong Kong.

White was a foreign policy adviser on McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and, from 2007 to 2011, a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, where her portfolio covered U.S. Pacific Command (now United States Indo-Pacific Command), United States Africa Command, United States Southern Command, United States European Command and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, together with counter-narcotics and nonproliferation. Defense News reported that she also spent short periods at the McChrystal Group, the consultancy of the retired general Stanley McChrystal, and in Northrop Grumman's Washington office.

From September 2012 to September 2015 she was director of policy and strategic communications for the Renault–Nissan Alliance (now the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance), working from Renault's headquarters in Paris. In October 2015, after returning to the United States, she founded 1055 Grady LLC, a leadership and strategic communications consultancy in Washington that coached executives, political appointees and candidates. She has said the firm is named for the address of her grandfather's house in Charlottesville. In 2016 she published Leader Designed: Become the Leader You Were Made to Be, a leadership book drawing on her own career. During the 2016 presidential campaign she called Trump a "narcissist" and an "egomaniac" in television interviews, while saying that Republicans needed to come together.

Pentagon spokesperson (2017–2018)

On April 5, 2017, White was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, succeeding Peter Cook; Mattis announced the choice that evening. The Washington Examiner reported that unnamed officials called her a "consensus pick". Her official biography described her as the principal staff assistant and adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on communications, news media relations, public outreach, engagement, public affairs and visual information, as spokesperson for both the department and Mattis, and as the communications policy lead for the public affairs chiefs of the armed services and combatant commands and more than 4,500 public affairs personnel. She also oversaw the Defense Media Activity, an organization of about 2,000 people.

White briefed the Pentagon press corps from the podium, often alongside Lieutenant General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the director of the Joint Staff. On the morning of April 14, 2018, hours after the United States, Britain and France struck three Syrian chemical weapons sites, she and McKenzie gave the Pentagon's account of the operation; she said the strikes did "not represent a change in U.S. policy, nor an attempt to depose the Syrian regime". Her last televised briefing was on May 31, 2018. By July reporters were complaining about cancelled briefings and the absence of on-camera sessions. White told Politico that the department would keep "investing our time in journalists who are equally committed to getting it right" and that "our metric of success is whether the American public is informed with the facts, not whether reporters are always satisfied". Military Times later wrote that she had "frequently clashed with reporters" and had held several sessions to "clear the air".

In August 2018 CNN reported that the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General had for several weeks been investigating complaints from White's staff that she had them run personal errands, such as fetching her dry cleaning and working on her mortgage paperwork, and that she had transferred employees who complained. Her deputy, Charles Summers Jr., said it was "an ongoing review about which we cannot comment". The inspector general's report, dated July 16, 2019 and released on July 18, substantiated the allegation that White had misused subordinates' time for personal services, in violation of the Joint Ethics Regulation, and that in doing so she had accepted gifts from them: two lifts in subordinates' own cars and a pair of pantyhose. The services, between 2017 and May 2018, included buying train tickets, fetching lunch and snacks, arranging makeup artists at her home, picking up dry cleaning, ordering personal stationery and flowers, collecting prescriptions and handling tax and mortgage paperwork. Three further allegations, among them that staff had been asked to make calls about an adoption, were not substantiated, nor was a complaint that she had failed to treat subordinates with respect or an allegation that Summers had failed to act on what staff told him. The reprisal complaints were addressed in a separate report. White told investigators that she had not asked for the services but had allowed them, and that she had reimbursed the mileage and the pantyhose; the report noted that the reimbursements came months later, after a complaint. Because she had left government, no personnel action could be taken, and the inspector general notified the Office of Personnel Management so that the findings would be recorded in her file. In a statement, White said she was "disappointed" that the inspector general had substantiated "allegations raised by two disgruntled civil servants", that "every decision I made was to advance our mission and maximize our impact", and that the report had "unfairly maligned acts of kindness done in every office in the Pentagon". Her lawyer's response to the draft findings, summarized in the report, said the claims had "no basis in fact or law" and that "the tasks in question were job-related".

Mattis announced his resignation on December 20, 2018, a day after Trump ordered American troops out of Syria. On December 31, his last day in office, White announced on Twitter that she too was leaving: "I appreciate the opportunity afforded to me by this administration to serve alongside Secretary Mattis, our Service members and all the civilians who support them. It has been my honor and privilege." Summers became acting Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs on January 1, 2019. An inspector general spokesperson said her resignation "does not affect our investigation". White later said, "I left DoD alongside Mattis because I believe in his integrity." She received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.

Business career

After the Pentagon White returned to 1055 Grady, by then based in Alexandria, Virginia. In April 2020 she became chief communications officer of Hyundai Motor North America, a newly created post, reporting to José Muñoz, global chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor Company; she held the post until November 2022. She was responsible for communications and public relations for Hyundai Motor North America, Hyundai Motor America, Genesis Motor America and Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, and in September 2020 she was named to the board of the industry group Women in Automotive.

In March 2023 Ankura Consulting Group announced that White would lead its Global Strategic Advisory practice, which includes the Washington firm McLarty Associates, as a senior managing director based in Washington. The International Republican Institute's biography says the unit had about 100 employees. She is now managing partner of Juno Collective, a strategic communications firm in Baltimore, which her LinkedIn profile says she joined in September 2023; the profile dates her Ankura role from January 2023 to November 2024. Her own website says she advises boards, chief executives and senior leaders on risk and "institutional visibility".

Boards and writing

White joined the board of directors of the International Republican Institute on July 30, 2020; its vice chairman, Randy Scheunemann, had worked with her on the McCain campaign. She is a member of the board of advisors of the National Bureau of Asian Research, and she joined the board of CureDuchenne, a nonprofit organization working on Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in June 2021; the charity's 2023 report lists her among its directors for 2022 and 2023. She has also been a board member of the Renew Democracy Initiative, a member of the advisory committee of the Tocqueville Conversations in Paris, and, from 2019, a member of the advisory board of Zenger News.

Her book Leader Designed: Become the Leader You Were Made to Be appeared in 2016. She has written for Sapir, a quarterly journal of Jewish ideas: a contribution to its April 2023 symposium "A Light unto the Nations", and a November 2024 essay, "Why HBCUs Are Key to Fighting Antisemitism", in which she drew on her family's history with Jewish Americans in Charlottesville and argued that historically Black colleges and universities could help rebuild ties between Black and Jewish Americans. She is the founder of the Randolph L. White Foundation, named for her grandfather.

References

1. Aaron Mehta, Dana W. White tapped for Pentagon press position, Defense News, 6 April 2017.
2. Dareh Gregorian, Top Pentagon spokeswoman resigns on New Year's Eve amid internal probe, NBC News, 31 December 2018.
3. Dana W. White, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, United States Department of Defense, archived by the Internet Archive on 8 August 2018.
4. Jim Garamone, Pentagon Officials Describe Syria Strikes, Hope Assad Gets Message, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 14 April 2018.
5. Abby Vesoulis, Donald Trump Inadvertently Killed Pentagon Press Briefing, Time, 10 April 2019.
6. Aaron Mehta, Dana White taps out as Pentagon press secretary, Military Times, 2 January 2019.
7. Barbara Starr, Pentagon spokeswoman under investigation for misusing staff, retaliating against complaints, CNN, 14 August 2018.
8. Report of Investigation: Ms. Dana W. White and Mr. Charles Summers, Jr., Senior Executive Service, Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (DODIG-2019-101), Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, 16 July 2019.
9. Oriana Pawlyk, IG Rebukes Former Pentagon Spokeswoman for Making Staff Run Her Errands, Military.com, 18 July 2019.
10. Dana W. White, International Republican Institute, accessed 8 November 2026.
11. Dana White, Digital Hollywood, accessed 8 November 2026.
12. Hyundai's Chief Communications Officer Dana W. White Named to Women in Automotive Board, PR Newswire, 8 September 2020.
13. Zenger News, Starting at a Black Newspaper, Dana White Is the First Black Woman to Run Comms at a Major Automaker, The Bay State Banner, 26 August 2020.
14. Dana W. White, LinkedIn, accessed 8 November 2026.
15. Ankura Appoints Dana White to Lead Global Strategic Advisory Group, PR Newswire, 13 March 2023.
16. Dana W. White Joins IRI Board, International Republican Institute, 30 July 2020.
17. Dana White, National Bureau of Asian Research, accessed 8 November 2026.
18. Dana W. White's advice on how to become the leader you were 'designed' to be, WTVR, 29 August 2016.
19. Dana White, TIGER 21, accessed 8 November 2026.
20. Randolph Lewis White (1896–1991), Race in Healthcare, University of Virginia, accessed 8 November 2026.
21. Jamie McIntyre and David Brown, New Pentagon spokeswoman went from Trump-basher to 'consensus pick', Washington Examiner, 6 April 2017.
22. Anna Giaritelli, Dana White to replace Peter Cook as Pentagon spokesperson, Washington Examiner, 6 April 2017.
23. Pentagon Spokeswomen and CJCS director brief press, DVIDS, 11 January 2018.
24. Department of Defense Press Briefing by Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White and Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. in the Pentagon Briefing Room, United States Central Command, 14 April 2018.
25. Ben Wolfgang, Reporters' frustration over press access at Pentagon boiling over; another media briefing scrapped, The Washington Times, 26 July 2018.
26. Courtney Kube and Ken Dilanian, Top Pentagon spokeswoman probed for making staff run errands, retaliation, NBC News, 14 August 2018.
27. Sommer Brokaw, Report: Former Pentagon spokeswoman misused staff, United Press International, 18 July 2019.
28. Paul Szoldra, Investigation finds ex-Pentagon spokeswoman wrongfully directed staffers to pick up her dry cleaning and lunch, Task & Purpose, 18 July 2019.
29. Dartunorro Clark, Probe finds ex-Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White made staff run personal errands, NBC News, 18 July 2019.
30. Philip Ewing, Defense Secretary Mattis Resigns Amid Syria And Afghanistan Tension, NPR, 20 December 2018.
31. Morgan Chalfant, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White to step down, The Hill, 31 December 2018.
32. Richard Sisk, Dana White Out as Pentagon's Chief Spokeswoman, Military.com, 31 December 2018.
33. Dana White joins Ankura as head of global strategic advisory, Consulting.us, 14 March 2023.
34. Dana White – Senior Managing Director Ankura, The Chavis Chronicles, PBS SoCal, accessed 8 November 2026.
35. About, Juno Collective, accessed 8 November 2026.
36. Dana W. White, danawwhite.com, accessed 8 November 2026.
37. 2023 Impact Report, CureDuchenne, 2023.
38. Dana W. White and others, A Light unto the Nations, Sapir, 25 April 2023.
39. Dana W. White, Why HBCUs Are Key to Fighting Antisemitism, Sapir, 18 November 2024.
40. Jonathan Feldstein, Combating Antisemitism in the Black Community: The Pivotal Role of HBCUs, Townhall, 19 January 2026.