Dana Hayden holds the nationally recognized professional certifications of Registered Merit Reporter (RMR), Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR), and Certified Realtime Captioner (CRC), as well as a Realtime Systems Administrator. She began her court reporting career in 1989 after graduating from Alvin Community College in Alvin, Texas. Her professional experience includes as a federal official court reporter for the Arkansas Western District Court in Fort Smith and Fayetteville. She currently owns Arkansas Realtime Reporting based in Fayetteville and Little Rock. She provides CART (Communications Access Realtime Translation) captioning services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
At the national level, Hayden has volunteered as a mentor to court reporting students and served on the Association’s TRAIN Committee and as a Chief Examiner to administer the national skills tests in the state of Arkansas. She currently serves on NCRA’s Membership, Marketing, and Outreach Committee and the Committee of Professional Ethics.
At the state level, Hayden holds membership in the Texas (TCRA) and the Arkansas (ACRA) Court Reporters Associations, as well as the Oklahoma Court Reporters Association. She is certified to work in Arkansas and Oklahoma. She is a past president to TCRA, has served in all roles on the organization’s executive committee, and has presented at the state and national level on rules/ethics, writing and perfecting realtime, and CART and captioning.
In her current state of residence, Hayden is serving her second three-year term on the Arkansas Board of Certified Court Reporter Examiners and helps lead the administration of a mandatory two-day orientation for newly certified reporters. Under the Arkansas Administration of the Courts, she served on the Motion Subcommittee to explore reciprocity options for certified court reporter certification, which ultimately was approved.
Hayden is the recipient of numerous awards including being named Court Reporter of the Year by ACRA. She is both a national and state speed and realtime champion.