A career member of the U.S. Foreign Service since September 1992, Dana Shell Smith will, in summer 2009, assume her next overseas assignment as the State Department's media liaison officer in Dubai. Fluent in Arabic, she will be one of a select few U.S. officials who appear regularly on Arab news shows to present America's point of view on key Middle East issues.

Dana Shell Smith has spent much of her career dealing with both Near Eastern and East Asian affairs. Most recently she led efforts to overcome staffing shortages to ensure Foreign Service staffing at Embassies and Consulates around the world.  From 2003-2006 she served as the Public Affairs Officer at the American Institute in Taiwan. She was the Embassy Spokesperson in Jordan from 1999-2002, and served in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv from 1996 to 1999, doing public diplomacy in the Gaza Strip. She served in the U.S. Embassy in Cairo as a Cultural Affairs Officer from 1994-1996. Ms. Smith studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo from 1993 to 1994 after joining the United States Information Agency in 1992.

Ms. Smith speaks Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew and Spanish. She received her undergraduate degree in political science and Middle East studies from the University of California, San Diego in 1992.

Dana Shell Smith is married to Ray Smith, also a Foreign Service Officer, who is currently studying at the National Defense Intelligence College at Bolling Air Force Base.  They have two sons, ages 5 and 8.