EDI News & Op-Eds

The School of Medicine's Equity Matters newsletter this month features a Q&A with Dane Whicker, PhD. Whicker is working to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the School of Medicine's Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, the Clinical Translational and Translational Science Institute, and the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.

A new multi-disciplinary team-based care model at Duke is changing lives for patients with lupus. The integrated care team addresses patients’ medical and psychological needs to improve outcomes, especially for Black women, who statistically have higher rates and worse outcomes from the disease. Duke Psychiatry's Keisha-Gaye O'Garo, PsyD, initiated the expansion of the care team through a Duke leadership program.

In a commentary in the journal Cell, 52 Black scientists including Duke Psychiatry's Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD, establish the context of Juneteenth in STEMM and discuss the barriers Black scientists face, the struggles they endure, and the lack of recognition they receive. They review racism’s history in science and provide institutional-level solutions to reduce the burdens on Black scientists.

We recently sat down with Tuyen Phan, MBA, an administrative director in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, to learn more about his path to research administration, his career at Duke, his Vietnamese culture, and his thoughts about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Each spring, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF) award fellowships to a select group of psychiatry residents. We’re excited to share that this year, four Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences residents were awarded APA/APAF fellowships.

Duke Psychiatry's Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD, has been inducted into the class of 2023 of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) “for his pioneering work in understanding the electrical patterns that underlie mental health disorders and his advocacy for inclusive science.”

The Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Anti-Racism Community is a community of graduate students and faculty from the Duke Clinical Psychology Program that aims to address systematic racism on Duke’s campus. Duke Psychiatry's Zach Rosenthal, PhD, who also holds an appointment in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, is the faculty lead for the group.

Ryan Slauer, MD, a fourth-year internal medicine-psychiatry resident, and Lynette Staplefoote-Boynton, MD, MPH, a third-year internal medicine-psychiatry resident, have received this year’s James H. Carter, Sr. Community Service Award, established in honor of Carter’s dedication to serving the underserved.

Two new proposed state laws targeting LGBTQ+ youth in North Carolina would drive up suicide rates, restrict health care providers and limit schools’ ability to provide safe havens for students, three Duke experts—including Duke Psychiatry's Dane Whicker, PhD, and Sarah Wilson, PhD—said Wednesday.

Through a new National Institutes of Health grant, Sarah “Sadie” Wilson, PhD, hopes to reduce inequities that place Latinx individuals at higher risk of HIV. She’s partnering with her friend and colleague, Joaquin Carcaño, director of southern health policy at Latinos in the South, to launch a community-based, equity-focused initiative in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.