Diane Carol Bast is The Heartland Institute's executive editor. She is responsible for Heartland’s serial publications—Budget & Tax News, Environment & Climate News, Health Care News, IT&T News, School Reform News,and The Heartlander. She also edits and oversees the production of all books, policy studies, newsletters, and other publications produced by The Heartland.

Bast has edited or written more than 100 studies and 10 books on state and local public policy, including Why We Spend Too Much on Health Care (1993), Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism (1994), Antitrust after Microsoft: The Obsolescence of Antitrust in the Digital Era (2001), and Emerging Issues 2007 (2007).

Since September 1998, Bast has managed Heartland’s Web site, overseeing regular redesigns, improvements to its functionality, and marketing and optimization.

Bast is also Heartland’s bookkeeper, managing the organization’s $7.2 million budget, working with Heartland’s outside accountant on the annual audit, and helping to draft the organization’s annual budget. She is also Heartland's chief compliance officer.

Bast was named to the board of directors of the Advocates for Self Government in 2009.

Prior to joining The Heartland Institute in February 1987, Bast was coeditor of the bimonthly magazine Nomos. She received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in criminal justice and constitutional law from the University of Wisconsin.