Dara Purvis is currently studying for her MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge. She is a member of Trinity Hall, and is the current MCR Women's Officer. After graduating from the University of Southern California as salutatorian in 2003, she interned at the Department of Justice's Special Litigation Section as part of her participation in the Truman Scholarship Summer Institute. She then spent a semester interning at the U.S. Consulate in Belfast, Northern Ireland under the political and economic officer, then worked in the nonprofit sector in Washington, DC. She will be attending Yale Law School beginning in the fall of 2005.

Dara is originally from Fresno, California. Her father is a professor at San Joaquin College of Law, and her mother is an attorney practicing family law. She has a twin sister, currently on sabbatical from studying for a PhD at UC Davis, and a younger sister, also on sabbatical from UC Davis. She has been dating her partner Jeff for the last five years. Dara can be reached at darapurvis@hotmail.com.