In 1998, Dana Greer was driving for a rehabilitation hospital in Western Pennsylvania, transporting patients to their medical appointments and therapy sessions. She spent years working her way up to a supervisory position, but Dana wanted more for her career, and in the summer of 2007 answered a newspaper ad seeking a transportation terminal manager.

“The ad didn’t say what type of transportation,” Dana notes. “You can imagine my surprise when I pulled up for my interview to see a lot full of school buses! I grew up in a very rural area with an hour-long bus ride every day, and I started to remember some of my own behaviors on the bus.”

She landed the job, but had her work cut out for her. The outgoing manager spent only two days showing Dana the ropes, and the Altoona terminal was a unique operation with half the fleet comprised of big buses, while the other half served Special Needs transportation. As the mother of an autistic son and pregnant with her third child, Dana was motivated to provide the best service possible to STA’s students.

“The hiring and training process helped me grow and look for individuals that not only wanted to drive our students safely but also had goals of doing more for our terminal and our company.”

Dana spent her first summer with STA routing approximately 50 Special Needs van routes by hand, while the women who washed the buses took turns driving the routes to make sure the timing worked.

She began connecting with other managers across the region, learning everything there was to know about the school bus business – and the STA Family. What struck Dana early on was the support network she discovered, and the willingness of others to help her succeed. She recalls STA’s Founder, Denis Gallagher, Sr., reaching out to encourage her growth and being particularly inspired by Joyce Dahlstrom and Colleen McAndrew, two women who ran their own successful STA terminals in other parts of Pennsylvania.

“Denis inspired me to always be positive and to build up the people that I was surrounded by every day,” Dana reflects.

STA was growing fast, and brought on an organizational development professional who traveled across the company, helping to nurture STA’s culture as new acquisitions and team members joined the family. “He influenced me to think of things on a bigger scale,” Dana says, “and to imagine what I could do to be a part of this growth and culture.” As a founding member of STA’s Brand Awareness Council, Dana had the opportunity to meet many of STA’s leaders across the U.S. and Canada, working collectively to build company programs and find ways to celebrate the great teams of drivers across North America.

Through these efforts, STA’s annual Employee Appreciation Week was founded, along with regional scholarship programs, classes to help young riders feel safe on the school bus, improved channels to share local success stories, and enhanced employee engagement and safety programs such as Bullying Awareness and Light it up Blue for Autism (one of Dana’s personal favorites). In Altoona’s own backyard, Dana organized ‘Secret Santa’ programs and mitten collections, and participated with the Project Winter Warmth organization, which was founded by one of STA’s very own drivers to take underprivileged children shopping for winter items and holiday meals for families.

“I was driven and inspired to find ways to give back to our communities.”

Dana feels fortunate for the abundance of support she experienced along her path, and for those who encouraged her success and exemplified ways to pay it forward to help others. “There were such strong women employed by this company, and they were very willing to help and share ideas,” Dana says. “I met Angela Williams (West Region, Operations), Lisa Taylor (Eastern Canada, Operations), and Prisha Hertzler (Corporate, Marketing & Communications), and I realized I was part of a company that not only encouraged women to believe in themselves, but one that celebrated their successes.”

One of the things Dana has enjoyed the most is helping drivers grow and move into new positions within dispatch, safety, and management. Watching them succeed in their own careers and inspire a new generation of drivers has been a full circle experience for Dana, and was a motivating factor in her desire to pursue a regional position.

“I wanted to continue to bridge the communication gap that the councils worked on,” she says passionately. “I wanted other managers to feel that energy and inspire them to continue to lead their communities while working long hours every day providing their drivers with the tools needed to safely transport our students. I wanted them to know that they could talk to me and count on me to share information with the necessary decision makers, so that they too could accomplish any goal that they set for themselves and their terminals.”

As STA’s Routing & Onboard Technology Manager, Dana is able to work with other STA terminals and school districts across the region, supported by the Mid-Atlantic’s Senior VP, Paul Fichner, who allows Dana the freedom to work in different capacities to best meet the needs of our operators.

“The thing that motivated me the most in this company to strive to be better were the drivers with their love and stories about the children that we transport.”

Dana has found that every routing project or solution benefits greatly with the input of the local driver team, and she places a high value on their opinions and collective experience. “I look back to the support staff in this company and how they reached out to me as a new manager, and how they guided me to be my very best not only in managing the business but in developing my team into being the best they could be,” Dana says.

“That has stuck with me throughout my STA journey, and I try to do the same wherever I am.”