The Presidential Awards program, organized by the Office of the President in partnership with Duke Human Resources, recognizes individuals and teams from the University and Health System who best demonstrate the values that define and shape Duke as an institution. The awards are the highest honor given by Duke to staff and faculty members. Many of this year's winners helped Duke rise to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficult national dialogue on race and social justice.
Duke Presidential Award to LATIN-19 Includes DCI Faculty and Staff
Updated
LATIN-19 Established in March 2020
LATIN-19 was established in March 2020 to address health disparities within the Latinx community as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The multi-sector group includes more than 500 participants (56 from Duke University and Duke Health System) representing academic institutions, healthcare systems, public health departments, public school systems, community-based organizations, government, faith communities, and others.
We would like to single out those individuals from DCI who are part of the LATIN-19 team and congratulate them (as members of that team) on being honored with a Duke Presidential Award this year.
- Angelo Moore, PhD, RN, Program Manager (leader), DCI Office of Health Equity
- Nadia Aguilera-Funez, BA, Certified Patient Navigator/Health Educator, DCI Office of Health Equity
- LaSonia Barnett, MA, Senior Program Coordinator/Certified Patient Navigator, DCI Office of Health Equity
- Kearston Ingraham, MPH, Research Program Evaluator, DCI Office of Health Equity
- Kathryn Pollak, PhD, Professor, Department of Population Health, and Co-Leader of DCI's Cancer Prevention, Outcomes and Survivorship Research Program.
- Danielle Kennedy, MPH, Clinical Research Coordinator II, Duke Cancer Institute
At the awards ceremony on April 14, a co-founder of LATIN-19 — Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, FAAFP — accepted the award on behalf of the LATIN-19 team as many of its Duke members looked on (all via Zoom). Martinez-Bianchi, director for Health Equity, and an associate professor in the Duke Department of Family and Community Health, said, "It's an honor to receive this award on behalf of LATIN-19. LATIN-19's success belongs to our comunidad latina and allies working collaboratively to lift up the community."
This excerpt is taken from an article that appeared on Duke Today. Read the full story.
Duke University honors the most exceptional contributions by faculty and staff members during the Presidential Awards Virtual Ceremony on April 14, 2021. Watch the ceremony and celebrate the individuals and teams across Duke that have exemplified our university values and inspired us all during a year like none other.
Written By
Julie Poucher Harbin
Senior Writer, Duke Cancer Institute
Topics
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The Duke Cancer Institute 8th Annual Scientific Retreat, held on December 3, 2021, attracted a broad array of faculty, trainees (students, residents, fellows, postdocs, etc.) and staff.For a second year, the retreat was entirely virtual and there were no poster presentations owing to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.“Hopefully, this will be the last time that we have to do it this way,” said executive director of DCI, Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, welcoming participants over Zoom.That it was virtual didn't stop a series of lively discussions from moving full-steam ahead on a full Friday afternoon on topics such as DCI cancer health equity and engagement strategies, viral lymphomas, bone loss as a CLL co-morbidity, ways around immune system evasion, cardio-protective cancer therapy, new approaches for treating head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, clues as to how cystic lesions progress to pancreatic cancer, unlocking immune dysfunction in glioblastoma, cholesterol-control drugs and cancer, and the PARP revolution.“We have a very full agenda today with great science from Duke trainees and faculty and are also celebrating several different anniversaries. First, it's my 10th anniversary as director of the Duke Cancer Institute and I have to say it's been a real privilege of my life to be in this role and to be able to work with such extraordinary people here. And I couldn't be more proud of everything that all the staff and all the faculty have done during the time that I've been here," said Kastan. "We're also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act, which was signed in 1971, and put us down the path to NCI-designated cancer centers. The Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center (now DCI) was one of the original eight."Kastan also noted that DCI's own 50th was on the horizon."This year we begin celebrating our 50th anniversary. We've made a tremendous impact on cancer research and patient care in the U.S. and around the world.”
Duke Cancer Institute Blog
At DCI’s 9th Annual Scientific Retreat, the Learning(s) Was Infectious
For the first time since 2019, the Duke Cancer Institute Scientific Retreat was held in person with a full program followed by a poster session and mingling. Held on December 2, 2022, the retreat attracted around 90 faculty, staff, and trainees (students, residents, fellows, postdocs, etc.).There was also a virtual option, which an additional 184 individuals took advantage of — whether out of convenience or caution during a season of rising Covid-19, Flu, and RSV infections.“Good afternoon, everybody. It's a pleasure to welcome you to the ninth annual Duke Cancer Institute Scientific Retreat. It's wonderful to be able to be in person again. I know this is a hybrid meeting, so we don't have everyone here. Maybe 15% of the audience is in person — but this is better than zero," said Executive Director of Duke Cancer Institute and host of the event Michael B. Kastan, MD, PhD. "We have a wonderful afternoon planned with selections of the top abstracts from each of the Cancer Center programs, a faculty presentation by Dr. Epplein that we're very much looking forward to, and then our keynote speaker for the Colvin lecture, Peggy Goodell from Baylor will be wrapping up the afternoon prior to the poster session.”Commemorations of DCI's 50th Anniversary as a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center were in evidence in nearly every presenter’s PowerPoint — emphasizing their pride in the tremendous impact of current and former DCI investigators and clinicians on cancer research and patient care in the U.S. and around the world.Seven DCI Trainee Members — one from each of DCI's seven basic, clinical, and translational National Cancer Institute-Designated Research Programs — were selected by program leaders and the scientific review committee to present their research at the retreat. (Previous to the retreat all trainees were invited to submit, for oral-presentation consideration, an abstract on their research project).Six of the trainees received a $1,000 award from the DCI and the trainee with the most innovative basic-science research project, as is customary at the annual retreat, received the Robert and Barbara Bell Basic Science Cancer Research Award in the amount of $5,000.Each trainee was introduced by either their mentor or a research-program faculty leader and took questions after their presentation. Between affirmations, friendly critiques, probing questions, and ideas for further exploration, there was no debating that the learning was infectious.In three presentations, the learnings were literally “infectious.”Meira Epplein, PhD, MS, MA—co-leader with Katherine Garman, MD,of the National Cancer Institute-designated DCI Cancer Risk, Detection and Interception Research Program (CRDI) — plus two of seven top trainees addressed, each from different angles, the bacterial and viral associations with and molecular drivers of gastric cancer, and potential strategies for both treating it and stopping its development before it starts.Other topics of the afternoon included:a patient experience study on barriers and facilitators to care in Black patients with newly diagnosed leukemia (specifically AML);a pathology/immunochemistry computational mapping study — deep learning — to characterize the features of the immune micro-environment landscape;novel approaches for: targeting fusion-driven rhabdomyosarcomas; targeting glioblastoma stem cells, otherwise known as brain-tumor initiating cells; and making breast cancer more receptive to treatment with immunotherapies by using targeted therapy/vaccinationand a review, by the keynote speaker, of the mechanisms that regulate hematopoietic stem cells and how they go awry in blood cancersGastric Cancer in Focus
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This page was reviewed
on 04/23/2021