Former Miss America Ericka Dunlap appointed major gifts officer at FAMU Law

The FAMU College of Law has appointed Ericka Dunlap to serve as the major gifts officer for the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs.  In this role, the former Miss America and Miss Florida is responsible for heightening the position of the college for donor consideration as well as establishing strategic development efforts to advance philanthropy.  She brings a decade of experience in relationship brokering between emerging markets in Africa and United States economies to the position.

“She has exceptional relationship and communication skills that will make her an asset to our development office, College of Law and the University” said LeRoy Pernell, dean of the College of Law.

Dunlap previously served as principal consultant and owner of a Florida-based diversity communications and international strategic-partnership firm, Crown Communication Group, which specialized in municipal diversity strategy development and relationship brokering.  She has served as the primary communications advisor for varied entities including public officials at the local through international levels.

“It is a great privilege to lend my expertise and meaningful relationships to the FAMU College of Law,” Dunlap said.  “I look forward to enhancing its legacy and developing the necessary resources to advance the excellence of this fine institution.”

Dunlap and Crown Communication Group have worked with clients based throughout the U.S. as well as in Jamaica, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Amsterdam, Sweden and Austria.  She began her career as a relationship strategist during her experiences as Miss America 2004, when she traveled the United States as a professional speaker in support of diversity best practices and cultural competencies.  She has since traveled to over 20 countries as a lecturer, and has honored U.S. soldiers as a Morale Ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait on two separate occasions.

Dunlap maintains an association with organizations advocating for girls’ education, global job creation, and women’s advancement and entrepreneurship.  She was named a “Woman Who Mean Business” nominee for the Orlando Business Journal, and has led Crown Communications Group to win designation as a “Top 500 Woman-Owned Business in the United States” by DiversityBusiness.com and the Publisher’s Award by Onyx Magazine for Outstanding Achievement in Communications. In addition, Dunlap finished as a 3rd place finalist on the Emmy-Award winning reality show, The Amazing Race for season 15.  She also co-wrote and co-produced her self-titled country music album, and performed as a judge for Disney’s Hollywood Studios edition of the “American Idol Experience” and the Off-Broadway musical “Disenchanted”.

Dunlap received her baccalaureate degree in public relations and marketing from the University of Central Florida, where she also became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.  She is a graduate of William R. Boone High School in Orlando, and will be an inaugural inductee into the Orange County Public Schools Hall of Fame in May 2015.

An individual of many firsts, Dunlap is the first and only (to date) African American woman to win the Miss Florida title, and first to be appointed to this position of major gifts officer at the College of Law.