Dana Hustedt joined Florida Tech in March 2021 as the Director of Esports. She is the first female collegiate esports director in the United States.
Prior to Florida Tech, Hustedt served as the Director of Esports at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, since 2018. There, she was responsible for the day-to-day operations, mission, and program development of Grand View Esports. Recruiting talented League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, production, and more with collegiate scholarship potential.
Outside of Florida Tech, Hustedt has worked as a Gaming Events Specialist for the United Service Organizations, Inc (USO) since August 2021. Her responsibilities include planning, developing, evaluating, and executing competitive, community, and leisure gaming events and programming for the US Military, which may include dependents and veteran participation. She also synchronizes, collaborates, and manages all aspects of tournament operations through various stakeholders and contributes to content strategy and community-facing communications, including active engagement on community channels and reactive messaging. She manages content calendars and milestones, delivers priority dates to various stakeholders, conducts post-event reviews of gaming events, issues related reports, and makes improvement
recommendations while ensuring proper execution of corporate partnerships deliverables and providing stewardship reports upon completion of all events to the Director of Global Gaming Operations.
Before joining the Panthers staff, Hustedt also has worked as a consultant for the ASU GSV Summit Esports Tournament, Account Coordinator for Gallagher in West Des Moines, Iowa, Global Classic Tournament Director for Global Esports Academy and Clinics, and interned with the Virginia Tech Volleyball team for the summer of 2014 where she helped sponsor youth volleyball camps.
While at Grand View, Hustedt received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Management and Marketing while playing varsity softball as a catcher and infielder for the Vikings, where she earned NAIA Softball Student-Athlete recognition. Before transferring to Grand View, she spent one year studying at Iowa Western Community College from 2013-2014.
