Dana Coester

Dana Coester is a professor at the WVU College of Creative Arts and Media and creative director for the College’s Media Innovation Center.

Coester’s work has long focused on technology and community media with special interests in audience building and new economic models for sustaining journalism. Her research and creative work have included experiments in immersive documentary storytelling, and she is currently producing the film Raised by Wolves, a documentary on the risks to youth exposed to weaponized mis/disinformation in social media and online gaming. Raised By Wolves is the recent recipient of a JustFilms award from the Ford Foundation. 

Coester conducts research on the platforms, processes and prevention of domestic violent extremism on and offline with a focus on developing resilient communities. She addresses this work at the 2022 Aspen Festival of Ideas panel Stopping Hate.

Coester is a co-recipient of the 2021-22 WVU Benedum Distinguished Scholar in the humanities and the arts and is a member of the Civic Collaboratory of Citizens University, a member of the Coalition Against Online Violence and the Rural Youth Catalyst working group, among others working on community resilience.

Coester earned her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.