SLIPPERY ROCK — Ivory Dunlap usually helps incoming freshmen adjust to the college experience, but this month she’ll be finding her way around campus herself.

Dunlap has been hired as Slippery Rock University’s new director of the Office for Inclusive Excellence.

Dunlap will begin her directorship at SRU July 12, replacing Corinne Gibson, who served as the OIE director before accepting a position as director of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Chancellor’s Office of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.

For the previous 14 years, Dunlap worked at Butler County Community College in a variety of positions, most recently as an associate professor and an academic counselor and retention specialist in BC3’s Academic Center for Enrichment in the Student Success Center.

She was the first Black tenured professor at BC3, where she taught college success skills and human diversity, and was a course coordinator.

Dunlap said of her new position, “I will oversee the Women’s Center, the Pride Center, the Veterans Center and the student transition programming.”

That includes Jumpstart, the incoming freshman mentoring program.

Her first day on the job at SRU will be July 12.

She said the transition is a busy time for her. She is making sure the BC3 students she is mentoring are passed on to a new mentor.

“I try to make sure to get these students transitioned to someone else, so they don’t call and one day I’m gone,” she said.

And she will have to get used to her new office and staff before gearing up for a new semester at SRU beginning Aug. 23. There will be a weeks’s worth of Jumpstart activities to get incoming freshmen acclimated to the college experience.

“Right now, my biggest challenge is just getting to know everything they do and getting to know the individuals and becoming part of the community,” Dunlap said.

She will be aided by Keshia Booker, assistant director of the Women’s Center; Dr. Lyosha Gorshkov, assistant director of the Pride Center; Carrie Peulso, the office secretary; and five graduate assistants.

A native of Butler and an SRU graduate, Dunlap is well suited to relate to students in her work that will focus on diversity, equity and inclusion from a student affairs perspective.

“I’ve been in their shoes,” said Dunlap, who attended SRU as an undergraduate from 1991-1994 and later earned her master’s degree in student affairs in higher education there in 2013.

“I understand that there is a smaller population of underrepresented students and a majority of the students are white,” she said. “Being biracial myself and coming from a family that is from Butler County, I want to be able to help students who maybe aren’t from here and help them know where to go and what to do when they need to feel at home.

“And it’s not just about students of color. When I think of diversity, I think of all aspects, from students who are differently abled to students of lower socioeconomic status.

“I’ve worked with diversity efforts for many years in many different aspects during my career, and the events (in our country) the last year brought everything to the forefront, and that’s why this (at SRU) is an opportunity that immediately spoke to me.”

She also comes from a family that has broken racial barriers. Dunlap’s great-grandfather, Clarence Dunlap, cofounded Black and White Express Trucking, the first Black-owned business in Butler, and her grandfather, Walter J. Dunlap, was the first Black trustee at BC3.

Her background also includes experiences working with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

After completing her associate degree from BC3 in 1996 and while earning her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from La Roche College in 2005, Dunlap worked as a systems advocate for the Victim Outreach Intervention Center in Butler for five years.

She joined BC3 in 2007 as the student facilitator for the Keystone Education Yields Program and later briefly served as the school’s disabilities coordinator.

“Ivory has a passion for diversity, equity and inclusion work and a tireless commitment to student success,” said David Wilmes, SRU’s chief student affairs officer. “She has served in a variety of roles working directly with students from historically marginalized groups, and we are excited to have her bring her expertise and passion to The Rock.”

“Diversity is something that has been a passion for me,” Dunlap said. “I have been involved in every diversity issue at BC3.

“When the SRU position opened and connected with students, it’s something I love doing, and I’ll be doing it at my alma mater,” she said.