Your monthly update from the Office for Institutional Equity (OIE)
about inclusive work across Duke

March 2024

Duke Celebrates Women's History Month

Women’s History Month celebrates, recognizes and affirms the work and achievements of women and femme-identified individuals living the full diversity of experience. Women’s History Month began in 1981 as “Women’s History Week” and was designated as an official month of celebration beginning March 1987.

Women's History Month started as a way to recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields and has expanded to become an annual celebration of the past, present, and future of women and femme-identified people.

This edition of Equity In Action spotlights some of the leadership and
service that continue to advance our efforts.

Be sure to note the latest updates from OIE and upcoming
campus events and opportunities you won't want to miss!

To celebrate Women's History Month, Dr. Mary Klotman, dean of the School of Medicine, shares a recap of various women she has interviewed who are addressing community-important health and equity issues in their research, patient care and policy advocacy.

Nina King made Duke history in 2021 when she was promoted to vice president and athletic director — the first woman at Duke to serve in that position and the third Black woman to ever hold the job at a Power Five school.

She came to Duke in 2008 and ran the day-to-day operations of the athletics department as then-athletic director Kevin White’s chief of staff and the in-house counsel for the Blue Devils.

In the last two years, King has faced a few challenges: Filling the shoes of Duke’s legendary basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and Mike Elko, who left Duke at the end of 2023 to return to Texas A&M. King oversees 27 teams and hundreds of student-athletes, but finds time to visit practices, attend home games and teach a sports business class at Fuqua. She’s also the mother of two boys.

Read the full article on Nina King

Duke raised a few eyebrows in 1993 when it named for its eighth president Nannerl “Nan” Keohane, a political theorist and president of Wellesley College, a women’s liberal arts college only a fifth the size of Duke.

Keohane was the first woman president in Duke’s then 70-year history, and only the third woman nationwide to head a major research university.

“There were quite a few people who thought, ‘How can this woman from Wellesley run Duke?’” she said in a 2018 interview.

But she knew she could do the job. She likened the pivot — from managing a small liberal arts college to presiding over a research university with more than 10 schools and hospitals and big-time athletics — to being the “admiral of a flotilla” instead of captaining a ship.

On the heels of her 12-year Wellesley presidency, she led Duke from 1993 to 2004, for a total of two decades in academia’s top post.

Read the full article on Nannerl Keohane 

Leigh-Anne Royster, Assistant Vice President
for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (photo: HuthPhoto)

Ian Lee Brown, Duke University Health System Vice President and Chief Employee Experience Officer (photo courtesy of Duke University Health System)

The 2021 Duke Campus Climate Survey, the first survey of its kind that measured experiences of university community members, revealed that among 12,751 respondents, more than half of Duke’s Black, Hispanic, Asian, female and LGBTQ+ community members reported experiencing microaggressions in the past year. 

Whether through Duke University Health System’s “Moments to Movement” initiative or the university’s Racial Equity Advisory Council, Duke has been working to create lasting change around racial equity, diversity, and inclusion.

As Duke’s second century dawns, Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leigh-Anne Royster and Duke University Health System Vice President and Chief Employee Experience Officer Ian Lee Brown shared thoughts on Duke’s progress.

This story is part of Working@Duke's celebration of Duke's Centennial year. Working@Duke is highlighting historical workforce issues and showcasing employees in a special series through 2024.

Read the Q & A here

OIE is currently offering educational workshops. The next session will focus on DEI Building Blocks and is scheduled for April 16.

OIE's workshop series is open to the Duke community, in particular to staff interested in increasing skill and workplace culture in their departments. Workshops will be held in Smith Warehouse, Bay 6, B271. Directions, parking, and other logistical information may be found here. Registration is required for each session.

Visit OIE Education Workshop Series for information and to register.

Duke University and Duke University Health System are committed to encouraging and sustaining a learning and work community free from discrimination, harassment, and related misconduct. To better serve the entire Duke community, the OIE Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment, and Related Conduct has been updated to include a definition of islamophobia, replacing "veteran status" with "military status", and adding conditions related to pregnancy. Additional examples of misconduct that could implicate the Policy were also added and Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer Kimberly Hewitt shared the updates in a March 22 email to campus.

View OIE policies here

Quincy Amerson at home with his mother
after his release

James E. Coleman, Jr., John S. Bradway Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law and director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic

Wrongful Convictions Clinic secures 11th exoneration

Quincy Marquies Amerson, a client of the Duke Law School Wrongful Convictions Clinic, walked free March 13 for the first time in more than two decades after the clinic presented exculpatory evidence in his 2001 murder conviction and the state dismissed its case.

Amerson, now 49, spent nearly 23 years in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the 1999 death of a child in Harnett County and sentenced to life without parole. He was effectively exonerated of the crime on February 16, after a Superior Court judge found that prejudicial evidence and testimony had denied him a fair trial and vacated his conviction and sentence.

“We are very happy for Quincy and his family. However, there was never any doubt that he was innocent,” said James E. Coleman, Jr., the John S. Bradway Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law and director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic, who has been working to exonerate Amerson since 2006.

Read the Duke Law story here

The website for the Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East is now live with background on the initiative, Duke Today coverage of initiative events to date, and upcoming events, including:

Former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will speak on April 1 at 6 pm at the Karsh Alumni and Visitor Center. (registration required)

“Literature Through Silence: A Lecture by Adania Shibli” on April 3 at 5 pm in East Duke 201 (registration required)

“Out of Crisis, Opportunity? War and Peace in Post-Oct. 7 Middle East”, a moderated discussion featuring Robert Satloff (T'83) on April 8 at 6 pm in Sanford 04

The Provost's Initiative on the Middle East — announced by Provost Alec D. Gallimore on February 12 — is a year-long effort to make space in the campus community for rigorous and respectful debate in which differing perspectives are welcome on current and past conflicts in the region.

Visit the website for more information 

When Trinity College moved to Durham in 1892, George Wall, a custodian, followed. More than a century later, Duke University's Board of Trustees approved a proposal on Feb. 25 from President Vincent E. Price to rename the East Campus Union to honor Wall’s legacy and that of his son, George-Frank Wall, who spent their lives making Trinity College, Duke, and Durham better and creating enduring communities.

The building will be named the George and George-Frank Wall Center for Student Life.

A dedication ceremony will be held during Founders’ Weekend in September.

Read about the East Campus Union Renaming

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announces the complete lineup for the 26th annual festival, April 4–7, 2024. Full Frame will exhibit documentary features and shorts from around the world in a premier showcase of film screenings, discussions and panels held in historic downtown Durham, N.C. This year’s festival will include 50 titles, 35 features and 15 short films from 22 countries.

“Full Frame is enormously proud of this year’s NEW DOCS and Invited Programs,” said festival co-director and artistic director Sadie Tillery. “These selections come from around the world and illuminate a stirring array of ideas and lived experiences."

Learn more about the 2024
Documentary Film Schedule

María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold is a monographic exhibition of a visionary voice in photography, immersive installation, painting and performance. Spanning nearly four decades of visually engaging artworks, the exhibition explores Campos-Pons’s prescient and sensorial work—transporting viewers across geographies, mediums and spiritual practices. In her explorations of migration, diaspora and memory, Campos-Pons draws from her family story to examine the global histories of enslavement, indentured labor, motherhood and migration.

The exhibition runs through June 9, 2024.

Learn more at the Nasher Museum of Art

Office for Institutional Equity

Advancing Racial Equity at Duke

OIE Education

Sexual Misconduct & Title IX

Duke University Institutional Statement of Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.