Dani YuanPronouns: They/Them
Pronunciation: dan-ee yawn What I do: Director of Volunteers; Unofficial Airtable Help Desk What I am: Trans Taiwanese-American Marine veteran Dani started out in AiA by helping onboard and offboard volunteers and now serves as the Director of Volunteers, focusing on optimizing workflows for the operations team to set them up for future success. Dani enlisted in the Marines right out of high school and spent 7 years with the prestigious 4th Force Reconnaissance team on deployments to Iraq and Mauritania. During this time, Dani also attended UC San Diego, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Biology. Discovering a love of film while in college, Dani created props and helped out on several productions, including scripting and producing a 40 minute Halo fan film and costuming for the Guild web series. They also helped establish the 405th Halo Costuming Group, one of the largest video game costuming groups which continues to work closely with developer 343i. After 7 years working in the security industry, Dani decided to shift careers towards animation, proudly quitting their security job....only to end up working security at Pixar Animation Studios! When not making sure everyone had a safe working environment, Dani participated in Pixar co-op film programs and the Asiana employee resource group. They are now back to working freelance art and studying animation, looking for opportunities to apply their organization skills to help out fellow creatives while pursuing their goal of sharing stories of military veterans through the medium of animation. |