Anne Dunn (1950 – 2012)

Former journalist and lecturer

Journalism education has lost one of its true advocates with the death of Anne Dunn, former ABC journalist and lecturer at the University of Sydney.

Dunn was also president of the Journalism Educators Association and was as passionate about passing on her skills to young journalists as she was about practising journalism herself.

She died aged 62.

Anne Dunn was a respected Australian journalism educator, media scholar, and broadcast media professional who served as JEA president from 2011 to 2012 until her sudden death in mid-2012. Anne, who led the establishment of the University of Sydney’s Media and Communications program, was committed to promoting women in journalism through research, teaching, and mentoring. In her final year, Anne led a major project, funded by the national Office of Learning and Teaching, to identify common minimum standards relevant for degrees in the journalism, media, and communications disciplines to ensure courses met new federal accreditation requirements and graduates were prepared for a rapidly changing workplace. (Excerpt from Creedon, P. J., Andsager, J. L., Kaufman, S., Romano, A., Steeves, H. L., & Toth, E. L. (2022). Celebration: Honoring Contributions of Colleagues. In Women in Mass Communication (pp. 211-225). Routledge.)

Anne’s former student and colleague Kate Leaver fondly remembers her mentor’s famously warm, supportive character: https://womensagenda.com.au/leadership/advice/why-my-late-mentor-the-incredible-anne-dunn-is-still-on-my-resume/