Dana Burns received a DVM from Colorado State University in 1986, and later a post graduate certificate of Chinese Herbal Veterinary Medicine and has a small holistic veterinary practice. She has studied acupuncture and Anthroposophic medicine. Burns homeschooled her 2 daughters, and co-founded A Week on the Farm, an intensive farm-based education program in southeast Wisconsin with Bente Goldstein. For Burns, this work has evolved into MaaViva the Institute for Interconnectedness that supports sustainable building and agriculture; wildlife conservation; and community empowerment primarily in Africa. Burns is now involved in the fight to save sustainable agriculture on her family farm on the front range of northern Colorado.