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Supporting the Past, Communicating the Future

Margaret Lillard supports North Carolina history at Yates Mill

Margaret Lillard volunteers her time outside of work helping to run Yates Mill Associates, the nonprofit that restored and now maintains and operates historic Yates Mill, a circa-1756 gristmill just south of Raleigh. Photo courtesy of Margaret Lillard.
Margaret Lillard volunteers her time outside of work helping to run Yates Mill Associates, the nonprofit that restored and now maintains and operates historic Yates Mill, a circa-1756 gristmill just south of Raleigh. Photo courtesy of Margaret Lillard.

Name: Margaret LillardPosition: Associate director for communications, Duke Energy InitiativeYears at Duke: 2

What I do at Duke: The Energy Initiative is still something of a new program, so I feel like my job is a combination of marketing our resources to the world but also helping people in the public understand what’s going on at Duke – our educational resources and research across a broad range of energy technology, data, policy, business, sustainability and industry. I’m also working to share news about the Energy Initiative with people within Duke itself because a lot of people may not know we’re here. We’re still working to make people aware that we’re a big interdisciplinary program ready to help those from across the university.

If I had $5 million, I would: Start by giving a chunk of it to Yates Mills Associates, then remodel my house to make it as ‘green’ as possible. My next-door neighbor has geothermal heating, so I’d want to do that, and then I’d put in some solar panels and a cistern system for recapturing water.

My first ever job: Puppeteer. I was living in Hawaii while my dad was stationed there in the Army and my sister was involved with theater groups there. One group did a holiday puppet show at a mall in Pearl City, near Pearl Harbor. She roped me in because she couldn’t perform every day, so I worked a life-sized puppet reindeer named Pearl, who had a southern accent. I was in high school at the time, about 15 or 16.

If someone wanted to start a conversation with me they should ask me about: Yates Mill, dogs, beer and hiking. These are all things I spend a lot of time enjoying. I’m really into craft beer, and I’ve volunteered with Yates Mill, the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and with a dog rescue.

What I love about Duke: The intellectual atmosphere. There are so many intelligent people who are passionate about what they’re doing. It’s easy to have a fascinating conversation with people about their work or line of study. It may not be anything you know about, but they care so much it engages you.

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Among her hobbies, Margaret Lillard plays goalie for the North Carolina Trailblazers Women’s Ice Hockey Association. Photo by Stan Gilliland.

When I’m not at work, I like to: I’m president of Yates Mill Associates, the nonprofit that restored and now maintains and operates historic Yates Mill, a circa-1756 gristmill just south of Raleigh. I live right around the corner and love the mix of history, technology, nature and culture at the mill and its surrounding park, so I started by volunteering as a docent and am now YMA’s president. I’ve always loved history. Every time we moved when I was a kid, my mom said the Army was paying for the trip, so we might as well make the best of it. Even before our boxes were unloaded, she’d have us looking at some covered bridge or Civil War battlefield to learn about history. I’m also a goaltender for the North Carolina Trailblazers Women’s Ice Hockey Association, which plays in Cary.

Something most people don’t know about me: I write poetry. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I enjoy doing it and I like reading poetry. It’s a way to stretch my creativity and I’ve done it since I was a kid. It’s almost like using words as musical notes. I tend to be a blunt person when I speak to people, so what I like about poetry is you can say something and it may mean many things.