Dana Chisnell

Executive Director for the Customer Experience Directorate

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Dana Chisnell serves as the Executive Director for the Customer Experience Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In her role, she drives initiatives to reduce administrative burdens, simplify public-facing
processes, and equip the DHS workforce with the tools necessary to improve customer interactions at all levels.
From October 2014 to 2016, Ms. Chisnell was part of the founding cohort of the United States Digital Service. Her focus was on bringing human-centered design to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as the agency
revamped its software development and design practices. Ms. Chisnell also acted as part of a cross-functional team to design a more agile and design-forward procurement process for the entire Department. In February 2021, Ms. Chisnell returned to federal service to improve processes to obtain Afghan Special Immigrant Visas, lead service design on parts of “Operation Allies Welcome” and explore process redesign for various parole programs. Before returning to federal service at DHS, Ms. Chisnell co-founded Project Redesign at the National Conference on Citizenship with Ginny Hunt and current DHS Chief Information Officer Eric Hysen. While with Project Redesign, she created and led the Tech Executive Leadership Initiative (TELI) with the Aspen Tech Policy Hub and the Tech Talent Project to prepare senior leaders from the private sector to enter public service. Ms. Chisnell also co-founded the Center for Civic Design (CCD). CCD was the first to map the experience of American voters. She worked on the Anywhere Ballot, the basis of the digital user interfaces on most commercially available voting systems today.
Ms. Chisnell is an expert in plain language, forms design, and user experience for older adults. Her work on design for
older adults includes groundbreaking work at AARP that was the basis for several requirements in the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Ms. Chisnell received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Linguistics from Michigan State University.

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