She earned her PhD at the Annenberg School for Communication and is professionally engaged with photography as an artist, scholar, and educator. Amongst her many academic publications are two photographic ethnographies, Waucoma Twilight: Generations of the Farm (1992) and Contesting the Super Bowl (1997). Her recent monograph, In the Kitchen, was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2009. Dona's work has been internationally published and exhibited at venues including the National Portrait Gallery, London, Blue Sky Gallery, the Milwaukee Art Museum, The Stephen Bulger Gallery, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, and in numerous juried exhibitions in the United States. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, George Eastman House, the Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, the Kinsey Institute, the Harry Ransom Center, and the Portland Art Museum.