The Duke University School of Medicine has announced the 2025 Michelle P. Winn Awards honoring individuals and teams who have made significant contributions to inclusive excellence over the past year.
The recipients of the 2025 Michelle P. Winn Inclusive Excellence Award are:
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Ashley Nmoh (Student Award)
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Raquel Ruiz, Senior Director of Equity, and Learning Health Communities, Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Staff Award)
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Julius Wilder, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Faculty Award)
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Pediatrics Restorative Justice Pilot Team (Team Award)
The faculty and staff awards will be presented at the School of Medicine Awards Celebration on May 19, and all recipients will be recognized at an awards ceremony at a later date this year.
Among her many achievements, Nmoh, a medical student, was recognized for her commitment to mentoring sixth graders, high school students, and pre-med students interested in careers in STEM, medicine, and the health professions. Nominators also highlighted her work co-designing a mobile health app and a mobile health game to support medication adherence and psychosocial well-being for adolescents living with HIV.
Ruiz was honored for her work advocating for language access in health care and research. She also founded the Duke Advancing Latiné/Hispanic Excellence (¡DALHE!) employee resource group, strengthening a sense of belonging and representation for all at Duke. Nominators applauded her efforts to streamline processes for community participation in research through her role as a founding member of the Reducing Administrative Barriers to Community-Engaged Research initiative.
Wilder was recognized for his scholarly work in hepatitis C treatment, including his continued efforts to improve treatment rates in all communities in the United States. His accomplishments also include working with community partners on a three-year study to examine how various populations respond to patient-education tactics such as print, digital, and video, with the goal of identifying the most effective methods and infrastructures for communicating relevant and important health information.
Four members of the Restorative Justice Pilot Program team from the Department of Pediatrics were honored for their work in implementing restorative practices within the department. Restorative practices emphasize community-building, empathy, dialogue, and conflict resolution. The four team members are Sydney Allgood, HR departmental director; Katy Bartlett, MD, vice chair for faculty; Catherine Hart, MEd, pediatrics education manager; and Jasmine Willis-Wallace, EdD, vice chair of organizational culture and experience.
The Michelle P. Winn Inclusive Excellence Award was established in 2016 to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to inclusive excellence within the Duke University School of Medicine community. The award is named for Michelle P. Winn, MD, associate professor of nephrology in the Department of Medicine, who passed away in July 2014. Winn was respected and beloved by her colleagues and deeply committed to supporting the careers of younger physicians and scientists who were impacted by her mentorship and leadership.