Nancy Fichtman Dana

Nancy Fichtman Dana is a professor of education and distinguished teaching scholar at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where her work focuses on professional learning through practitioner inquiry and educator research. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Hannibal Central Schools, New York, and earned her PhD in Elementary Education from Florida State University in 1991. Before joining the University of Florida, she served on the faculty in Curriculum and Instruction at The Pennsylvania State University, where she helped develop and direct the State College Area School District–Penn State Elementary Professional Development School program, an award‑winning inquiry‑based teacher education partnership.

Dana is a leading international authority on teacher and practitioner inquiry, and has worked with schools, districts, universities, and professional networks across the United States and in countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, China, South Korea, Estonia, Slovenia, Spain, and Portugal to design and implement job‑embedded professional development through inquiry. She has authored or co‑authored numerous books and more than 80–100 articles on teacher and principal professional development, practitioner inquiry, and school‑university collaborations, including The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Practitioner Inquiry and multiple editions of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research.