Who is Dana Perino? Flash Uganda Media looks at her biography, age, husband, family, tribe, achievements, and relationship with Jan Perino and Leo Perino, Peter McMahon, the early life and education of an American political commentator, Television news anchor, host and author.
Dana Perino is an American political commentator, Television news anchor, host and author.
She co-anchors America’s Newsroom, a morning news program on FOX News Channel (FNC) that airs weekdays from 9 to 11 AM/ET.
She also co-hosts The Five, which airs on weekdays from 5 to 6 PM/ET.
Under George W. Bush, Perino served as the 26th White House Press Secretary.
She also started Minute Mentoring, a program for women in leadership, and is the founder and president of Dana Perino and Company.
Net Worth
As of 2023, Celebrity Net Worth estimates Dana Perino’s net worth to be $6 million.
Her wealth has been greatly influenced by her accomplishments in the media, especially her work on Fox News.
She currently makes $13 million a year working for FOX News Channel.
Dana Perino invested an additional $1 million from her savings and bank mortgages to purchase additional real estate, on top of the $2 million she inherited.
She currently has more than six properties listed on Airbnb and brings in more than $500k annually from rentals. She has 9% of her net worth in real estate.
Early Life and Education
Dana Marie Perino was born on May 9, 1972, in Evanston, Wyoming, USA to Jan Perino and Leo Perino.
Her father, Leo Perino (born April 16, 1943), owned a convenience store in Denver, and her mother, Jan Perino, worked in marketing for a private nursing home.
Her family relocated to Denver, Colorado, two years after she was born, and she grew up there. Angie Perino, born March 21, 1986, is her younger sister.
Her paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Italy. Dana Perino is Irish and Italian by heritage.
She attended high school at Ponderosa High School located in Parker, a suburb southeast of Denver.
She worked as a country music DJ at KCCY-FM from 2 to 6 a.m. while she was a college student.
In 1994, Perino earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications with minors in political science and Spanish from the University of Southern Colorado, now known as Colorado State University Pueblo.
Perino participated actively in the university’s debate team and with KTSC-TV, the Rocky Mountain PBS affiliate located on campus.
She produced Standoff, a weekly public affairs program, and hosted Capitol Journal, a weekly summary of Colorado politics.
Perino continued to the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) to earn a master’s degree in public affairs reporting.
She covered the Illinois Capitol every day as a reporter for WCIA, a CBS affiliate, while she was employed at UIS.
In August 1997, Perino got acquainted with Peter McMahon, her husband. The couple tied the knot on September 30, 1998. They don’t have any kids.
Career and Professional Work Experience
After earning her master’s degree, Dana Perino worked as a staff assistant for Congressman Scott McInnis (R-CO) in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO), who was then the chair of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power, employed Perino as his press secretary for nearly four years.
Perino relocated to Great Britain with her husband Peter McMahon following Schaefer’s 1998 announcement of his retirement.
After returning to D.C. in November 2001, Perino was hired by the Department of Justice as a spokesperson, a role she held for two years.
Perino then started working for the White House as the associate director of communications for the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
In this role, she advised policymakers on media relations, public outreach, and message development.
Two months after the September 11 attacks, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card hired Perino. In 2002, she began her career with the White House CEQ as associate director of communications.
From 2005 to 2007, Perino worked as the deputy press secretary. While Tony Snow received treatment for colon cancer, she served as the acting press secretary for the White House from March 27 to April 30, 2007.
President George W. Bush declared on August 31, 2007, that Perino would succeed Snow, who was stepping down due to health concerns.
Perino held the positions of White House Press Secretary and Assistant to the President from September 14, 2007, until the Bush administration’s conclusion in January 2009.
President Obama nominated her in 2010 to the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, a position she held for three years.
She began teaching a part-time course in political communications at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in 2010.
Perino joined the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in March 2011 and was named editorial director of the Crown Forum books imprint; however, she resigned from this role.
She has previously held positions as a reporter in Illinois and Colorado, a private practice public relations firm, and on Capitol Hill.
Fox News Career
In 2009, Perino began working as a political analyst and contributor for Fox News Channel.
Co-hosted by Chris Stirewalt, Perino’s podcast Perino & Stirewalt: I’ll Tell You What debuted as a weekly limited series on the Fox News Channel on September 18, 2016.
Up until Stirewalt’s termination from the network following the 2020 presidential election, a new episode of the show debuted every week.
She appeared as a guest host on Fox News’ late-night talk show Gutfeld! in 2022, and as of 2023, she is still Greg Gutfeld’s regular stand-in host.
Before the 2024 presidential election, it was revealed in August 2023 that Perino would host a brand-new podcast on Fox News Radio called Perino on Politics.
She was formerly the anchor of The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino. Perino left the show at the beginning of 2021 to co-anchor America’s Newsroom alongside Bill Hemmer.
At present, she co-hosts The Five and America’s Newsroom.
Achievements and Awards
Dana Perino has made a great deal of impact on the political journalism community and has accomplished a great deal over her career.
After Dee Dee Myers, who held the position during the Clinton administration, she was the second female press secretary in the White House.
Her alma mater, CSU Pueblo, bestowed upon her an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters in May 2023.
In 2011, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America awarded her the “Patriot Award” in recognition of her efforts on behalf of veterans and military families.
Her memoir, “And the Good News Is…Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side,” is a best-seller among her three books.
She has won numerous accolades and awards for her services to the industry, including the 2016 RTDNF First Amendment Award.
Perino received the 2018 Blogger of the Year Award from the Conservative Political Action Conference.
She received recognition for her contributions to the conservative movement as well as her work as a blogger and political commentator.
Controversies
Muntadhar al-Zaidi, a TV journalist, hurled two shoes at Bush on December 14, 2008, during a press conference in Baghdad.
Bush managed to avoid both, but in the chaos surrounding al-Zaidi’s arrest, a microphone stand injured Perino’s eye.
Some of Perino’s texts with her coworkers were made public when Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for spreading conspiracy theories about Trump’s loss in 2020.
These texts showed how little Perino thought of the former president and his assertions that massive voter fraud cost him the election.
She also mentioned on air and in a text exchange with Fratto, who was then representing Dominion that she was being threatened.
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