News

Assistant professor Tyson Pankey, PhD, MPH, has been named vice chair for equity, diversity, and inclusion for the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, effective August 1, 2024. A clinician, researcher, and educator, Pankey specializes in culturally responsive behavioral health and education among minority patients, including those with intersecting cultural identities and backgrounds.

One-on-one time with Duke University baseball players made a unique experience at the third annual Baseball Duke Bonanza even more extraordinary. Running the bases, catching a ball in the outfield, and trying out the batting cages in a college ballpark will be special memories for the children who participated.

The Office of Le Well in the Duke University School of Medicine (SOM) received a $500K Duke Endowment grant to support an initiative to help students succeed and thrive in their clinical learning programs. Jane Gagliardi, MD, MHS, associate dean for learning environment and well-being at the SOM, and Melanie Bonner, PhD, assistant dean for student services at the SOM, will lead the project. Both are Duke Psychiatry professors.

As a research administration specialist, Drusilla Russell assists with managing awarded funds for sponsored projects. Over her 32-year Duke career, she's worked in a variety of roles spanning the School of Medicine, Duke University Hospital, and the main campus.

In his new book, Duke Psychiatry's Warren Kinghorn, MD, examines ways that modern medicine shapes mental health care and contrasts them with a more holistic approach championed by Saint Thomas Aquinas. By spotlighting this more person-centered approach to mental health care, Kinghorn challenges mental health clinicians to look beyond merely diagnosing and treating symptoms to healing the patient as a whole.

After 45 years of service to the Duke University School of Medicine, James A. Blumenthal, PhD, ABPP, J. P. Gibbons Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, retired in February 2024. He was widely recognized as the leading behavioral science researcher in the field of cardiac rehabilitation and behavioral approaches to the clinical management of cardiovascular disorders.

Congratulations to our Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences trainees and faculty members who received these year-end awards.

Three faculty members who have retired from the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences this year have been honored with emeritus/emerita status: James Blumenthal, PhD, ABPP, Scott Moore, MD, PhD, and Patricia A. Resick, PhD, ABPP.

In a talk on May 31 on the Duke campus, Temple Grandin, PhD, discuss connections between animal behavior and autism. The talk was organized by the Durham County Library and co-sponsored by the Durham Library Foundation and the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development.

Duke University School of Medicine’s Black employee resource group held its third annual Juneteenth celebration on June 20. The event featured keynote speaker Damon Tweedy, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.