Dianna Odell was born in Provo, Utah but raised in California, Texas, and St. George, Utah. She attended Brigham Young University as an undergraduate student, majoring in Social Work with a minor in African Studies, and spent a semester in South Africa on a field study. She met and married her husband while at BYU and following graduation they moved to Chicago where Dianna completed a Master’s degree in Social Work and her husband attended Medical School. Following the birth of their first child, they moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a year while her husband worked as an NIH research fellow and Dianna volunteered with a local NGO. Medical training took their family from Chicago to New Hampshire to Seattle, with a child born in each spot. Dianna continued to work as a hospital social worker while raising their three children. Dianna and her family are thrilled with the opportunity to live in Moscow for the summer.