Meet Marika

Marika Dunn is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Dunnright Collaborative. She brings more than two decades of experience working at the intersection of nonprofit, government, and higher education — and a deep conviction that the right partnerships can change what organizations are able to accomplish.

 

A social scientist by training, Marika has spent her career building the kinds of collaborations that don't happen by accident. At Rutgers University, she led a university-wide research partnerships unit, forging alliances with corporate, state, and federal partners and connecting them to sponsored research, workforce pipelines, and commercialization efforts. Earlier in her career, she oversaw multi-year field-building grant programs at the Social Science Research Council, supporting scholars and institutions across the US and abroad, and managed an advocacy network at the American Association of University Women that connected individuals and attorneys with institutional resources to address campus discrimination.

 

Across these roles, a consistent model emerged: collaborative networks that bring together institutional priorities, funding partners, and participant communities in ways that create durable value for everyone involved. That model is the foundation of her work at Dunnright Collaborative — and what she brings to every client engagement: an approach based on empathy, integrity, and a genuine interest in the organizations she works with and the people they serve.

 

Marika is a proud graduate of Hampshire College (BA, social sciences) and Rutgers-New Brunswick (PhD, political science). She also serves on the New Jersey State Museum Foundation's Board of Trustees, where she applies the same partnership-building principles she practices with clients.