Lillian Dunlap, MME’73 (Jacobs), PhD’92, has spent her career at the intersection of teaching and storytelling, training thousands of college students, professional journalists, and journalism faculty, and using storytelling as a tool to foster organizational cultures of diversity and inclusion.
Dunlap is principal and CEO of Communication Research Enterprises, a communication and diversity coaching firm, and executive director of Your Real Stories Inc., a nonprofit theatrical journalism company that uses storytelling and theater magic to challenge people to engage in discussions across differences in identity, experience, and opinions. She’s also an affiliate faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and continues to design and lead diversity and leadership seminars.
After graduating from Defiance College, she began her career teaching music in Kokomo, Indiana, and later worked as a television news reporter, anchor, and producer. She served as national seminar leader for the Radio Television Digital News Association and senior consultant to the International Broadcasting Bureau for nearly a decade.
As a graduate student in the Jacobs School of Music and later speech communication at Indiana University, Dunlap was assistant director of the IU Black Music Center and a founding director of the IU African American Arts Institute. She was key to the development of its three touring ensembles: the IU Soul Revue, the African American Dance Company, and the African American Choral Ensemble. She taught communication and culture for IU in Shah Alam, Malaysia, and spent more than a decade on the University of Missouri School of Journalism faculty.
For five years, Dunlap was resident faculty of leadership and ethics/diversity for the Poynter Institute, training professional journalists and journalism educators all over the world, including in South Africa at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the U.K. at the University of Central Lancashire, and Serbia for the Association of Independent Journalists.
Her production credits include senior consultant to PBS's award-winning documentary, “Eyes on the Prize II,” an eight-part series chronicling the Civil Rights movement from 1962-1985, and associate producer for several WTIU programs while she was at IU. Through Your Real Stories Inc., she produces “The Your Real Stories Show” on GrioTV, and has created award-winning theatrical performances, such as “Decades of Day Work,” a series on the institution of domestic day work in the local community across the decades, and “This is My City: St. Pete Stories,” a production inspired by a diversity and inclusion training she led for employees of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida. She co-created and directs an annual storytelling festival, Story Days in Tampa Bay.
She was awarded the IU Bicentennial Medal in 2021 in honor and recognition of her distinguished service and contributions.