Alana Dang

Accounts Payable Specialist

AAPI ancestry/background: Filipino. Alana's father served in the U.S. Navy and brought her mom and sister Stateside in the early 60s. She was born in California.

What she does at the Commanders: Having grown up just down the street from the stadium, Alana's move to the Commanders in March 2020 was a full-circle moment for her.  As the team's only accounts payable specialist, Alana helps pay a lot of the organization's bills and, in particular, manages the expenses of vendors. Though she admits her work may be considered boring and monotonous to many, she truly loves accounting.

Her favorite Filipino traditions: "It's a tradition among all Filipinos to use respectful titles within interactions between close friends and family. When you're referring to an older female, you'd say ate as in ate Alana. Kuya is the male version. Another tradition we have is this blessing called mano where we say 'Mano po' to an elder, which kind of means 'I want your blessing', then you take the hands of an elder and put it up to your forehead. That's a tradition that I've instilled with my kids who are half Filipino, half Vietnamese. They're learning both cultures."

How her Filipino heritage has shaped her. "It's shaped me so many ways. It's shown me how to have respect for elders and just all the things from my upbringing that my parents have taught me. It's shown me the value of tight family bonds. We have a lot of family, and we're all very, very close. And also, within the Filipino community, everyone knows everyone. I've been friends with my Commanders colleague, Josh Madarang, decades before coming to FedExField because it turns out his grandfather is a really, really close family friend from years ago and my dad was his uncle's best man at his wedding _laughs_ so yes, my heritage has taught me to appreciate those family bonds and the importance of paying respect to elders."

What AAPI Heritage Month means to her: "It's a time for us to reflect on our heritage and the traditions that we have and that we can teach each other. There's this great opportunity to learn about and share with one another because there's so much diversity in history, language, culture and religion within the many different countries that comprise Asia."

Favorite quote/mantra: "Bahala na. It can be taken in a few ways, but how I see it and use it is essentially like 'no worries' or 'hakuna matata'. In the face of all of life's uncertainties, whatever happens, happens and things will turn out ok."