Faculty and staff members honored for making health care more efficient, diverse
The members of Duke’s faculty and staff honored at Tuesday’s Teamwork and Diversity Awards have all played a role in making health care – both at Duke and beyond – more diverse and efficient.
Two of Duke’s highest honors, the Teamwork and Diversity awards are presented every year to employees who foster collaboration, cooperation and open communication as a team or demonstrate a respect and value for differing backgrounds and points of view.
This year, the Teamwork Awards went to a team from the Center for Advanced Hindsight that brought new ideas to the analysis of health behaviors and also to a multi-department group that created a new, more accurate framework for the coding process for complicated patient cases.
The Diversity Awards went to a pair of professors who have dedicated their careers to championing underrepresented populations in the medical field.
President Vincent E. Price, who spoke to the 2017 winners during the ceremony at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens’ Doris Duke Center, said the values displayed by all recipients represent the core principles of Duke itself.
“We will work to continue to recruit a diverse student body, a diverse faculty and staff and celebrate the contributions of every member of this great community,” Price said. “I believe very strongly that these efforts will make Duke an even better university in years to come. We will continue to provide leadership – the leadership of those in this room – as that conversation continues to unfold.”
Here are the 2017 Teamwork and Diversity Awards from the university and health system:
Diversity Award
Associate professor Brigit Carter has made Duke University School of Nursing a more inclusive place through her work. She’s the academic director of the Health Equity Academy, which increases the educational opportunities for underrepresented individuals in the nursing field. She also created a summer program that allowed minority college students the opportunity to shadow health care professionals. And as the director of the Accelerated Bachelors of Science in Nursing program, she pushed for a more holistic approach to admissions.
But it’s the efforts she’s made on a personal level that has left a greater impact on many she’s met.
During her time as a student in the School of Nursing, clinical nurse Jasmine Alexis remembers Carter, who came to Duke in 1993, hosting students for Sunday dinners, offering them a supportive place where they could get a break from the pressures of school and speak freely about what was on their mind.
“Dr. Carter wears many hats,” Alexis wrote. “.... But the one title she wears the best is ‘Mama Carter.’”
Diversity Award
In her research, Laura Svetkey, a professor in the Duke Department of Medicine, has provided valuable insight into how best to treat hypertension and obesity among minorities in the United States. In her role as the Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Diversity, she’s spearheaded diversity efforts in the Duke School of Medicine.
At Duke since 1982, she’s helped organize the Faculty Development Academy, the Program for Women in Medicine and the Minority Recruitment and Retention Committee. She currently sits on the Dean’s Diversity Leadership Group and the Faculty Diversity Council.
“On a large scale, Dr. Svetkey promotes an environment of diversity and inclusion across the institution,” wrote Crystal Tyson, medical instructor in the Duke Department of Medicine. “She recognizes that we all come from different backgrounds with varied life experiences and perspectives that can only lead to a stronger, more enriched institution.”