Dr. Naomi Nichele Duke, MD, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Sociology, and is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Adolescent Medicine. Dr. Duke serves as an Associate Director for Duke PCLT. She joined the faculty at Duke in 2019.

Dr. Duke is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Harvard Medical School. She completed a combined internship-residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Hospitals, Ann Arbor. While a practicing physician in the U.S. National Health Service Corps (NHSC), Dr. Duke obtained an MPH in Maternal and Child Health at the University of Minnesota (UMN) School of Public Health, Minneapolis. After work with NHSC, she re-entered training and completed subspecialty fellowship in Adolescent Medicine (UMN). In 2017, she completed a PhD in Sociology (UMN) with a focus on life course theory.

Working at the intersection of medicine, sociology, and population health, Dr. Duke brings a unique perspective to address social drivers in maternal and child health and adult chronic disease onset. Her work focuses on advancing knowledge and advocacy efforts around the relevance of childhood social context for adult health and the intergenerational transmission of health, including morbidity and mortality related to stress physiology, perceptions of physical and emotional weathering, and health-related behaviors.

Dr. Duke’s other roles in education and training include co-director, Duke National Clinician Scholars Program; group facilitator, Social and Structural Drivers of Health Course (first year medical school); adolescent medicine rotation director (junior/senior pediatrics and medicine-pediatrics residents); adolescent medicine outpatient preceptor (all learner levels), third year research mentor (third year medical school).