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Are You Under 50 with a Cancer Story?

For some colleagues at Duke, cancer has arrived during years often associated with building careers, raising families and planning for the future. A recent National Cancer Institute report found that rates of 14 cancers rose among Americans under 50 from 2010 to 2019. With 56% of Duke’s workforce under 50, Working@Duke wants to hear how cancer has shaped the lives of young colleagues across Duke. For an upcoming Working@Duke magazine cover story, we want to hear from staff and faculty who were diagnosed with cancer before age 50 during their employment at Duke. If that’s part of your story, we invite you to share your experience.

Share your story: https://hr.duke.edu/SendNews

Devlin, Working@Duke’s miniature correspondent, spent time recently with Administrative Coordinator Kimberly Dorman at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, learning how the institute puts Duke’s values into action.

While basking in the sun with plants, Devlin heard about the institute’s origins and how in 1995, then-Duke President Nan Keohane spoke of ethics as a matter of community and character and of a program that would extend to “the general life of the nearby community and the nation,” providing not only “reasonable intellectual constructs but opportunities for commitment.”

“Over almost 30 years, the Kenan Institute for Ethics has taken shape from these origins,” Dorman said.

Throughout his stay, Devlin met some of the people who keep Kenan’s work moving forward. He helped make copies and scans with Dorman and Executive‑in‑Residence Kay Jowers. He also connected with Brooks Emanuel, who works on undergraduate programming centered on radical imagination and social change, and Laura Pinto‑Coelho, a research associate supporting Indigenous studies initiatives. He also couldn’t help but spend some time exploring the Carceral Studies and Ethics and Society Certificates, two programs of study offered at the institute.

Devlin capped off his visit with time on the West Duke Building’s front porch with staff and student assistants and a trip to the Full Frame Documentary Festival with Shannan Hayes, Associate Director of Student Engagement.

Want Devlin to visit you? Complete the interest form and we’ll schedule his stop!

https://today.duke.edu/2026/02/strike-pose-devlin-workingduke-correspondent

She almost didn’t apply.

After 24 years at Duke, Jenise Washington wasn’t sure she had time for the Duke Leadership Academy.

Now, she says the connections made it all worth it.

From meeting colleagues across campus to building lasting relationships, this program shows how growth happens, and how community makes it stick.

“The biggest part of it that has been most beneficial is connecting with the other individuals,” Washington said. “Of course, they give good information for the tools, but it really has been the conversation and getting to know the other people.”

Thinking about expanding your own network at Duke?

Read the story about the reunion at the Duke Lemur Center and see what the Duke Leadership Academy is all about.



Duke Learning and Organization Development | Duke Facilities Management | Duke University Press

Duke Leadership Academy's Annual Gathering Builds Connections and Community | Duke Today Duke Leadership Academy's Annual Gathering Builds Connections and Community Reunion at the Duke Lemur Center highlights how relationships shape the experience for participants and alums of professional development program Image Current participants in the Duke Leadership Academy and alums of the pro...