Alumni News Jeana Dunlap 2019 Distinguished Alumni Congratulations, Jeana!
Jeana Dunlap, an urbanist and community development practitioner who last year was awarded a 2019 Harvard Loeb Fellowship, has been selected to receive the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration’s 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dunlap, who earned her Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Martin School in 2006, was one of nine members of the 2018-19 Loeb Fellowship class at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. This prestigious fellowship recognizes exceptional mid-career practitioners from around the world for their achievement and potential, and includes a year of independent study at Harvard.
Dunlap joined Louisville Metro’s Department of Housing & Community Development in 2004. Her responsibilities included managing the Louisville-Jefferson County Landbank Authority, the Urban Renewal Commission, the Vacant Property Review Commission and numerous entitlement grant programs supporting non-profits, housing developers and underserved households. She became Louisville’s director of redevelopment strategies in 2016 as the city received a competitive $29.5 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to redevelop the Beecher Terrace public housing complex in the historic Russell neighborhood.
In addition to affordable housing and place-making initiatives, Dunlap also has been instrumental in fostering a community-wide dialogue on the issue of past and present redlining practices. In 2015, she partnered with nationally- recognized urban design consultant Joshua Poe to publish “Redlining Louisville, The History of Race, Class and Real Estate.” This interactive story-map analyzed ways that redlining has affected housing development, disinvestment and lending practices in Louisville since the 1930s and received national recognition.
Dunlap is a proud Kentuckian having been born, raised and educated in the Commonwealth. She was a 1989 Governor's Scholar at Centre College and graduated from duPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to her studies at the Martin School, Dunlap earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Louisville’s College of Business and a Master of Science from the Gatton College of Business and Economics.
“Jeana has earned a well-deserved national reputation as an innovator in community development,” said Dr. Ron Zimmer, director of UK’s Martin School. “We are very proud of what she has accomplished and she is most deserving of the the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award.”
Dunlap will receive her award at the Martin Schools’ annual Alumni and Friends Reception on November 22 at Spindletop Hall in Lexington.