Meet Oana

Oana Harrison, a newcomer to the Joy of Music School’s board, has a simple but critical goal: The School needs to increase its visibility within the Knoxville area and, importantly, it needs to sustain that high profile throughout the year.

“My hope is that it’s not just the occasional burst of publicity at Christmas time, for example,” she says. “I’d really like people to know about what the School is doing all the time. This will produce a stream of volunteers and donors that’s bigger and more consistent.”

Oana, 34, has just the background to help. A native of Romania, she came to the U.S. in 1997, drawn by a full academic scholarship from Berea College in Kentucky. There she studied business administration with a minor in Spanish. In 2002 she earned her master’s in marketing from the University of Tennessee. Since then she has worked in marketing roles at Jewelry Television and Scripps Networks Interactive.

Though she doesn’t play any musical instruments, the arts are a vital part of her life. She loves dance most of all, and clearly she’s got talent. Oana first took ballroom dancing lessons in 2004. By the next year she and her dance partner competed in the amateur national ballroom championship — and won.

Oana also volunteers as a member of the Brand and Messaging Committee for United Way and Random Acts of Flowers. She and her husband, David, live in Knoxville.