GlenEva Dunham

GlenEva Dunham serves as the president of the Gary Teachers Union, Local 4, after years of working up through the ranks. She is also the president of AFT Indiana, a state federation with more than 4,000 members in 24 local unions. Her mentor was the late Sandra C. Irons, a past AFT vice president.

Dunham was born and raised in Gary, Ind., where she attended elementary, middle and high school. As a participant of the integration movement of the 1960s, she was bused from Gary’s West Side to the Glen Park area. She graduated from Lew Wallace High School in 1974 and from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in family and consumer sciences. She went on to earn a master’s degree in elementary education from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). At Purdue, she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and held many leadership roles in the sorority.

Dunham has worked for the Gary Community School Corporation for more than 30 years, mostly as a kindergarten teacher. She says, “I have a passion for the children, which I’ve expressed through years of service as a PTA officer, organization sponsor, basketball coach, union building representative and school leader.”

Dunham also serves as a vice president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO. A member of the local branch of the NAACP, she is also a board member of the Gary Educational Development Foundation and is most proud of its work with the students and staff of the Gary Community School Corporation.

Dunham is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Viola Briley Service Award from the Gary Teachers Union, the Soror of the Year Award from the Gamma Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, an Outstanding Parent Award from the Gary Community School Corporation and the Outstanding Young Woman of America Award.

Dunham is married to Henry Dunham and is the mother of two sons, Hank Dunham Jr. and Jimmy Lamont. A member of Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, Dunham serves as a Sunday school teacher and youth supervisor.

“I am a woman of God,” she says. “I love my family, and I love serving the children of this great community in Gary, Ind.”

 

Biography updated October 2020.