Hi, I'm Danna! 

I'm a Boston-based freelance higher education writer and journalist with 15 years of experience to offer. If you’ve got a demanding feature, important donor interview, time-consuming admissions campaign, or a complex faculty research paper that needs decoding and amplifying, I am here to help. In fact, I’d love to partner with your team or publication any time you need an extra hand with projects! 

 I've interviewed thousands of students, alumni, faculty, administrators, and thought leaders in the higher ed space. As a journalist, I've had bylines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post and covered the Middle East region on the ground for years.

Spoiler Alert: I’m launching my own boutique higher education agency in 2026!

Let me explain why:

I’m incredibly lucky to partner with more than 20 universities across the country.  

In the spirit of telling more stories, I’m excited to announce something I’ve been working towards for several years: a boutique agency specifically focused on higher education. Not another big box agency where your school pays exorbitant prices only to get passed from exec to exec and given generic campaigns, admissions viewbooks, and strategies.

For a while now, behind the scenes, I’ve been building a team of experienced independent writers, graphic designers, and photographers. We’ve been working on impact reports, admissions viewbooks, case statements, website copy, content strategy, and complex features.

Like always, I’ve remained the point person for our clients and gotten into the weeds on everything from helping to shape a college president’s campaign vision, to writing a visual art school’s donor impact report, and presenting the latest interdisciplinary initiative at MIT.

Our agency's hard launch will take place sometime next year but I’ll be sharing some examples of recent projects soon. I’d love to hear from you if you or a colleague have an exciting new project to add to our list, want to request a rates sheet, or meet up for a (virtual) coffee to explore partnering.

Ps: Don’t panic! If you want to continue to hire me individually for the editorial writing that you love, I’d be happy to work with you one-on-one, too. I’m continuing to offer all the same services but expanding to be able to do even more in the higher ed space. 

You can reach out to me at: danna@dannalorch.com. Let's have a coffee over Zoom or on campus? 

-Danna