Melody Hunter-Pillion Named Director of Duke’s Climate Communications

New role marks a return to Duke for former administrator and student

Duke’s climate efforts have a new communications director. Melody Hunter-Pillion has been named Director of Marketing and Communications for Climate and Sustainability.

Hunter-Pillion is a seasoned communications director in university, government, and healthcare settings, bringing more than 20 years of experience in journalism, communications, and media relations. Most recently, she has served as a broadcast correspondent at PBS North Carolina while pursuing her Ph.D. in American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her dissertation, which she anticipates defending later this year, is based on oral histories of farmers and watermen in Eastern NC and focuses on intergenerational narratives of climate change resiliency and adaptation.

Her name may be familiar to some veteran Duke employees; Hunter-Pillion was the associate director of Duke’s Office of Undergraduate Scholars and Fellows from 2012 to 2016. She has been a contributing writer to Duke Magazine and holds a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Duke.

Hunter-Pillion will be responsible for leading marketing and communications efforts to tell the story of how Duke is applying all of its talents and resources to work toward a resilient, flourishing, climate-neutral world. She will report jointly to Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability Toddi Steelman, and Frank Tramble, Vice President for Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs.

“I am excited to join the Duke’s climate effort at such a crucial time for our campus, local communities and the global community,” Hunter-Pillion said. “This role marries together my professional experience in journalism with my academic interest in how communities pass along narratives as instructive tools for resilience and adaptation. There is much work to be done in the climate arena, and I am happy to be part of an institution that is using its full breadth of resources and scholarly research to find collaborative solutions.”

“As the Duke Climate Commitment continues to grow and expand, I am eager to partner with Melody in telling the stories of Duke faculty, staff, students and alumni responding to climate change and making strides to build a more just and equitable climate future,” Steelman said.