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Dana Sawchuk is an associate professor at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario in the department of sociology. She has received a PhD for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto in 2001. Sawchuk is present in many academic journals, as well as being an author of a book.

Early life
Dana Sawchuk was born June 10, 1968. She grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She graduated with an MA degree from the University of Winnipeg in 1992.

Academic History
Sawchuk graduated with a PhD from the Interdisciplinary Centre at the University of Toronto in 2001. In her past papers, Sawchuk focused more on the relationship of politics and religion in Latin America. Recently, Sawchuk focuses on social movements for women in relation to aging, activism, and the sociology and religious (particularly Roman Catholicism) contexts behind it. She also works on the representation of aging and elder adults in secular and religious media. Since 2001, She became a full-time faculty member in the Department of Sociology at the Wilfrid Laurier University. Besides the academic field of study, the scholarship of teaching and learning is also her recent interest in looking for an innovative way to engage with students in the classroom.

Awards and Achievements
Sawchuk received a Merit Award from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2005 and 2016, and also a Faculty of Arts Teaching Scholar Award in 2006.

Impact on Religious Studies
Sawchuk's book "The Costa Rican Catholic Church, Social Justice, and the Rights of Workers, 1979-96" is one of the only book length monograph devoted solely to the subject of politics and religion in Costa Rica.

Her other impact would be in her most recent articles, focusing on print media in the Roman Catholic religion, aging, and ASD. She now sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging.

Political Impact
With Sawchuk's review of The Raging Grannies, she gave political support to a group called Grannies to Grannies, G2G, consisting of older women, who worked to travel across Canada, and spread awareness about African grandmothers that are raising their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren. Sawchuk wanted to let the public know that the older generation of women can also make an impact on society, regardless of age.

On July 21, 2018, Sawchuk held an oral presentation at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre to discuss about the sociology of aging. She discusses the challenges older women face in society, and how their treatment in the world is closely related to how the media portrays the elderly. Her main goal for this presentation is to give light that the audience is aware the media portrayal of older women is flawed.