Dana is a small-business booster
Using her new project management skills, Dana Hom creates efficiencies for her team at a boutique music production company.
If you’ve ever seen Netflix’s documentary Crime of the Century or Willie Nelson’s moving performance in a public service announcement for COVID vaccines, you’ve heard Dana Hom’s talents at work. Hom served as composer Peter Nashel’s score coordinator for the documentary and managed the music licensing for the PSA—typical assignments for this project management student, originally from Albany, New York.
Hom handles business operations and music licensing at duotone audio group, a New York City-based boutique that creates original music for advertising, film, and TV. Since joining the company in 2015, her role has expanded. Recognizing that she needed to skill up in order to grow in her job and broaden her career options in a tech-driven economy, Hom enrolled in the Roux Institute’s project management master’s degree program.
View from the duotone studios where Dana Hom worked for five years before transitioning to remote work in Portland, Maine.
It's applicable to my job now, and to anything I want to do in the future. ”
Dana Hom
Master of Science in Project Management
The Roux Institute
When Hom’s husband enrolled in medical school in Maine, they moved in the summer of 2020 during the pandemic, and she has since worked primarily remotely from her home in Portland. The program, which she describes as “tech-forward and data-driven,” gives her the flexibility to study part time while continuing to work full time at duotone, where she oversees finances and top-level business strategy while also managing the day-to-day business aspects of all music-related projects.
“I craved a more formal education and training in project management,” says Hom, who earned her bachelor’s in music business and management at Berklee College of Music, in Boston.
At duotone, Hom is streamlining operations and exploring digital tools that could benefit her colleagues and clients. From her course in project scope management, she’s now using a work-breakdown structure to track deliverables and estimate the time, cost, and resources each task will require.
Tailoring these new techniques to each project cuts across all industries, she says. “It’s applicable to my job now, and to anything I want to do in the future.”