News

For decades, Duke’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences has taken a multi-pronged approach to addressing trauma in the local and national community. More recently, the department has expanded its cadre of clinicians trained in providing trauma-informed care across the lifespan. This growth has led to better access to care for patients who have experienced trauma. It has also opened up opportunities to educate and support Duke clinicians in caring for these patients. And it’s created a tight-knit community of trauma experts who rely on each other for support, validation, and ongoing personal and professional development. The team’s efforts also extend beyond campus through engagement in local, national, and international community-led partnerships and initiatives.

Duke University School of Medicine has been selected to participate in a Kern National Network for Flourishing in Medicine national demonstration project to advance open inquiry and respectful discourse in academic medicine. The Duke task force will be led by Jane Gagliardi, MD, MHS; Melanie Bonner, PhD; Aditee Narayan, MD; and Joseph Jackson, MD. Gagliardi and Bonner are Duke Psychiatry faculty members.

On the anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Duke Graduate School takes an opportunity to reflect on the state of disability justice today, especially here at Duke, and to highlight the exciting, ongoing work of students, faculty, and staff as it relates to disability—including efforts by Duke Psychiatry's Sam Brandsen, PhD, and Tara Chandrasekhar, MD.

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.