Hard work pays off. Just ask Dana Hall, Vice President of Operations with Russell Restaurants in Magee, MS.
Hall grew up in Mendenhall and graduated from Mendenhall High School in 1999. She will be the first to willingly say that her childhood was less than ideal. After graduation, she attended Jones Junior College for a year but returned home when she discovered that she was expecting a baby.
After her son Thomas was born, Hall’s sister suggested she apply at Sonic for work. While the business was owned by Skip Russell at the time, also the owner of Russell Restaurants, he interviewed Hall with his wife Tracy, who was general manager of Sonic. Hall was hired as a roller skating carhop but quickly proved her worth and within three months moved up to assistant general manager. “I didn’t get that easily. I worked for it,” Hall said.
She added that Tracy is the fiercest woman she knows and a force to be reckoned with. “She taught me how to be the mother and the woman that I am. She challenged me in the places that I needed to be challenged. She took no excuses and held me accountable.” Hall did not have accountability growing up, she said, and rebelled with Tracy but her boss never gave up on Hall. “She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.”
Hall met owner Skip when he came in during a rush at work, unaware of who he was at the time. When he opened Popeye’s in Magee, Hall began there as a general manager. Then he began his expansion of the franchise.
Hall remained at the Magee Popeye’s store until a major surgery in 2017 that required her to take off work for six weeks so she went to Russell and asked for light duty office work to keep her on payroll until she could return to the floor at Popeye’s. At the time Tracy was handling all the paperwork side of the business. Russell moved Hall to the office to take care of accounts payable and soon she became his personal assistant.
At the end of the six weeks, Skip realized that the manager left in place at Popeye’s while Hall recouped was ready for her own store, so rather than bring Hall back he brought her on to train personnel at his other Popeye’s stores. “I started my Certified Training position at the end of 2017. I taught them what I taught at Magee, which at that time was important to our franchise. To make us amazing, to make us number one— that was always the goal. And we sold it at number one in the state.” Russell sold the Popeye’s franchise in 2023 before moving into Newk’s Restaurants.
Hall always knew she wanted to return to school, initially to pursue a bachelor’s in child psychology. She realized soon enough that the degree was not for her since she had three children of her own and did not want to practice on them. She took online classes with Purdue Global and received her degree in 2018. Hall also wanted a master’s degree so she could counsel others. She completed the necessary coursework, only to learn that Mississippi is extremely limited in locations for needed internships. For now, that degree is on hold. “It will be finished at some point. I will have a master’s on my wall just because I’m determined to finish what I started.”
Hall shared how she came to be VP of operations. “I was his franchise director. But my dream with him – I don’t even know when the dream started – I wanted to be his VP. It was important to me. I wanted to earn the VP spot.”
She approached the request as an election, making a poster saying “Vote for Dana for VP of Operations” with the help of her co-worker Jessica Smith. Hall put the poster in Russell’s chair and waited. Finally he came to the office, saw the poster, but said nothing. “He is a thinker. I knew that not to ask. It sits on the table for a little while,” Hall explained.
He then requested her for an interview. “He legitimately made me interview because it was the other end of the joke!” In the fall of 2024 Hall became vice president of operations.
Hall clearly loves her job and her “people,” as she calls everyone she works with at Russell Restaurants. She is passionate about what she does and who she has become but makes it clear she is not done, nor will she ever settle. She worked hard to get to this point in Russell Restaurants. Above all, Hall wants her children to be proud of her and learn from the life she has lived. “That’s any job; you have to work to get to where you are. It’s not just handed to you. Teaching my kids, that is very important.”
