Marketing graduate honored with FSU Alumni Association’s Inspire Award

When the FSU Alumni Association presented its annual FSU Women of Distinction Inspire Awards to three outstanding women in Atlanta last month, 1994 marketing graduate Julie Dunn Eichenberg was among the recipients.

The Inspire Award recognizes women who not only have shattered the glass ceiling and mentored others, but also given back to their alma mater and served as inspiring community leaders. This year’s awards were sponsored by the Alumni Association, Women for FSU and the Atlanta Seminole Club. 

 “I’m humbled to receive the Inspire Award as I have been inspired by so many Seminoles throughout my life and career,” Eichenberg said. “Many of those people are part of my tribe – friends who continue to challenge and encourage me every day. If I can inspire another to give back and stay connected to Florida State and to their community, then I view that as a success.”

Eichenberg, vice president of Brand Distribution at Turner based in Atlanta, manages the distribution of content for Turner’s news and entertainment networks in the United States and Canada and leads content negotiations and marketing strategy with the company’s largest distributors, field accounts and affiliate ad sales. During her 21 years with the company, she has taken on a variety of roles in the distribution division.

Eichenberg is the outgoing chair of the FSU Foundation Board of Trustees and serves on the Torchbearers Development Council, which is the primary fundraising board for the Division of Student Affairs. In 2017, she was inducted into the FSU Alumni Association’s Circle of Gold and was the commencement speaker at one of the university’s May 2018 ceremonies. In addition, she and her husband Bob have funded the Robert & Julie Eichenberg Interview Room in Legacy Hall, the college’s new home.

“The University’s Raise the Torch Campaign is coming to a close and it has been exciting to witness the generosity of so many alumni and friends,” Eichenberg said. “We are well on our way to reaching our goal of the Top 25, and I am proud of the small part I have played in getting us there. “

As a student, Eichenberg was an enthusiastic participant at FSU, serving as Panhellenic Association president and senior class secretary. She was a member of the Student Alumni Association, the Student Senate and the Order of Omega Greek Honor Society and a founding member of the elite Burning Spear Society. Named 1993 Greek Woman of the Year, she received the Seminole Leadership Award and was one of three students selected in 1994 for the Garnet and Gold Key International Honor Society’s Hall of Fame.

Eichenberg credits these campus activities, as well as her classroom experience in the College of Business, for helping her to become the person she is today.

Three other College of Business alumnae also are recipients of the Inspire Award. Nada Usina, a 1993 marketing and international business graduate who earned her master’s in sport management, was among the recipients at the inaugural award ceremony in New York City in 2016. Melanie Shoemaker Griffin, who earned her bachelor’s degree in finance in 2003 and a joint Juris Doctorate and Master of Business Administration (JD/MBA) in 2006, and Judy Schmeling, a 1982 accounting graduate, received the award in Tampa in 2017.

Also selected as 2018 Women of Distinction and honored at the event were Loretta Jackson Brown, who earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1987, and Joy Lynn Fields, who earned her bachelor’s degree in communications in 1986.


- Barbara Ash