The highest ranking Air Force officer of Korean descent, Dunbar was commissioned in 1982 upon graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy and graduated with distinction from the National War College in Washington, D.C. Her military career encompassed a series of procurement, manpower, political-military, and command positions. As a Major, she was chosen to be the Air Force's first congressional fellow and was assigned to serve in the U.S. Senate for Senator Dan Coats (R-IN), Chairman of the Air/Land Forces and Personnel Subcommittees on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a respected bi-partisan voice on defense and acquisition reform. Coats assigned Dunbar to author the pivotal legislative initiative in 1996 known as the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). She then served as the military assistant to the Honorable Rudy de Leon and went on to command a mission support squadron, Air Force Basic Military Training, and the 75th Air Base Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah where she also served as the first female installation commander. In addition to these military assignments, Dunbar was appointed by the Secretary of Defense to serve on two separate congressionally-mandated Task Forces convened to address sexual assault and harassment in the military services and their respective military service academies. She was later appointed by the Secretary of the Air Force to direct the Air Force Follow-On Review in response to the 2009 Fort Hood shooting as well as to lead the Air Force's repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in 2011.