Winter 2015 Issue

Scientists have offered wide-ranging ideas about why being near the ocean brings us such calm. They include the negative ions found in ocean waves, which are believed to boost the mood chemical serotonin, and our evolutionary propensity to find safety in flat, unforested environments where predators can’t hide. Studies have linked swimming and other aquatic exercises to improved mood and sharper brain function.

Ashleigh Shelby Rosette grew up in rural, working-class East Texas. Race and class divided her community. So it makes sense that, as an associate professor of management and organizations, she likes exploring inequities in the workplace. Workers, she’s observed, don’t always get out of the system what they put in. “Generally I’ve been motivated to attain a better understanding of how racial and gender stereotypes and prototypes influence leader perceptions, inequitable relationships, and workplace discrimination,” she says.

Growing up in the fading manufacturing economy of upstate New York, Aaron Chatterji saw first-hand what happens when a community loses its economic engine. “It was the ’80s and ’90s, and many of our bigger employers had downsized or moved away. I remember looking at these old photographs of downtown when it was bustling, and wondering, what happened?”

Duke neurosurgeon John Sampson has long been recognized as a pioneer in neurosurgery. He’s a co-leader of the Duke Cancer Institute’s Neuro-Oncology Program and is a recognized leader in the surgical and experimental treatment of brain tumors, with a focus on immunotherapy and drug delivery.But he credits his time at Fuqua with giving him even more skills to use. For about nineteen months, Sampson tirelessly worked his way through the Weekend Executive M.B.A. program, taking classes every other Friday morning through Saturday afternoon.

Consumers can easily go astray—especially if they are ordering naughty items or treating themselves for doing good deeds. And please, don’t trust them with portion sizes. At least that’s what the results of three studies done by Fuqua researchers examining consumer habits suggest.

Sitting in the middle of a futuristic set in São Paulo this past September, Dean Bill Boulding was surrounded by Brazil’s top journalists, who had the freedom to ask him anything for an hour and a half.It was a prime position for the dean. The show was Roda Viva, a prominent TV program in that country.

Dean Bill Boulding says the Fuqua School of Business is committed to identifying the best practices for developing workplaces that better meet the needs of women and working families.Boulding and other deans from the country’s top business schools made the pledge at the White House this summer, after working for more than a year with the White House Council on Women and Girls and the Council of Economic Advisers.

As the daughter of Arab immigrants, I’ve often grappled with what home is. Born in the U.S., I spent the first few years of my life between Egypt and Mississippi as my parents were trying to discover the balance between heritage and opportunity. Dad learned to downplay his heavy Egyptian accent while mom struggled to make the hijab a familiar artifact to a predominantly conservative-Christian town. Their language, their foods, the expression of their faith—these are elements that have constantly been in flux for them.

Snack attackSome students have been having unnerving encounters with squirrels that have gotten used to humans and the good food they leave behind. “One of my friends was sitting at an outdoor table, and a squirrel literally ran across her,” one student told The Chronicle. Freshman Samantha Bouchel tweeted this image with the sentiment: “The diet of the Duke squirrel includes berries, acorns, and the occasional bagel.” Think he’d like cream cheese?

THE CATALYST: Mark Goodacre, a professor in the religious studies department, has been teaching the course for ten years. “I inherited it. The first thing I did when I got to Duke was look to see what was on the books already. I saw ‘Historical Jesus’ and thought, ‘I would love to teach this course.’ ” He believes the course focuses students’ minds with a detached, critical perspective rather than one rooted in Christian tradition. “Who can’t be interested in Jesus?—Even if you know nothing about him.

At 6 o’clock in the morning there is just enough light cutting through the front entrance of the thatched home where Ernesto Ortiz, Axel Berky, and a nurse technician from the Peruvian Ministry of Health (MINSA) work alongside each other and ask questions listed on their clipboards. The home belongs to a Peruvian family that has consented to participate in one of the largest baseline health studies ever conducted in the Amazon. Now the three researchers focus on collecting the family’s information before the men leave to work in their fields and on the river.

Damon Tweedy M.D. ’00, assistant professor of psychiatry, is the author of the widely (and favorably) reviewed Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine. What were some of your early shaping experiences?

One Saturday morning in the late 1980s, Marissa Young entered a bedroom where her father, Robert, was recovering from working the graveyard shift.Young jostled him until he awoke. She wanted to join a friend in signing up for the local softball league, and she needed a ride. “Softball? You want to play softball?” he replied, in disbelief since his daughter was in just the first grade. “Have your mom take you.”

This fall, Duke celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Physician Assistant program. Most people who see a physician assistant for a cough or a sprained ankle are not aware that the idea of a physician assistant was born at Duke. In 1959, the U.S. Surgeon General had declared a dire need in the healthcare system: a national shortage of medical personnel.

FEATURED BOOKDavid Kaczynski’s new memoir, Every Last Tie: The Story of the Unabomber and His Family, is a compassionate and complex story of one family’s path from anguish to understanding. For Duke University Press editor Gisela Fosado, the project began one afternoon in 2012, when she happened to tune into a radio program featuring Kaczynski, a poet and social-justice activist:

As the 23rd secretary of the U.S. Air Force,  James is responsible for organizing and equipping the nearly 664,000 airmen and women serving throughout the world. James is a former president at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a company that provides information technology support to the U.S. Department of Defense, and was the assistant secretary of defense for Reserve Affairs during the Clinton administration. James has served as secretary of the U.S. Air Force since 2013. How did you get to Duke?

2015 DUKE ALUMNI AWARD WINNERSDAA is pleased to announce winners of our 2015 awards. The 32 individual and group award winners were honored during a special Homecoming Weekend reception in October. The Distinguished Alumni Award, the association’s highest honor, was presented during the weekend’s Founders’ Day ceremony. The awards recognize outstanding achievement and commitment to Duke and its alumni around the world.BEYOND DUKE SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP AWARDSMark Hecker A.B. ’03Washington, D.C.

Under the glow of purple stage lights in Baldwin Auditorium, Jeremy Jones ‘02 is giving a drum lesson from his perch behind a sparkling silver drum set.As a videographer clamps a GoPro camera near Jones’ drum pedal, he jokes with her, saying, “You can sound really cool if you say, ‘Can I get some of that kick drum?’ ”