Graduate/Professional Young Trustee Finalists Dakota Douglas, Trinity ’22 and Graduate School ’24 hope that the Duke board will improve accessibility, community engagement and healthcare equity.
For Douglas, efforts to bridge advocacy work and community are not an option. If they are selected as young trustees, they are willing to take on it.
For her, the young trustee is “someone who has the same kind of sacred respect for the health of the Duke and the progress that should accompany him. [the] University to university as a member of the board is closer to university experience and closer to student organization needs.
A North Carolina native and two Duke alumni, her personal experience at university has deeply influenced her advocacy. Growing up on the North Carolina Indian Trail and with her autistic sibling and a grandmother with congenital blindness, Douglas said she saw firsthand that unequal access to health care and accessibility produces different outcomes.
“I always knew when you look different you wouldn’t be treated the same way,” she said.
Her family’s connection with Duke reinforced this understanding. Douglas’ grandmother was once a cigarette share cropper for an American cigarette company. Owner and Operate By the Duke family and the Duke Hospital patients. Taking over the family legacy in the community through a role that prioritizes giving back was Douglas’ driving force to apply for the position of young trustee.
“We’ve been to one from an institution that hired my family as a share crop. [where] “The granddaughter of a living Shercropper could become a trustee,” she said. […] It’s truly miraculous. ”
This is the second time I’ve applied for the position of Douglas’ young trustee. Last year she reached the semi-final round and chose to reapply this year with a new focus on Duke’s community partnership.
Her candidacy, now a finalist, underscores the importance of ensuring that institutional policies reflect the living experiences of those who influence them.
“Governance is a mechanism by which we can use community feedback. I’m a supporter of ‘nothing about us without us,'” Douglas said. “It’s crucial and important to have representatives from the community that you are there and want to help them grow their goals.”
If chosen, Douglas wants to focus on strengthening Duke’s relationship with Duke. Durham says he is deeply influenced by the university’s existence, but it is not necessarily in fair service.
She added that universities should be “a deeper and more conscious consideration of Duke’s role in Durham” and not afraid to say, “This is where we are, where we are, where we are, here’s what we want to do.”
During her undergraduate years, Douglas Cardea Fellowresident assistants and members of multiple cultural and advocacy organizations; Black Women’s Union and Sardoa program for Latino students at Durham Public Schools to study health inequality and pursue health-related fields. She later postponed acceptance at Howard University School of Medicine and then returned to Duke for graduate school after taking a gap year to care for her grandmother.
“It really shaped and empowered me to act on my understanding of my duty to have knowledge about how the world is not set just for everyone,” she said.
She worked together while earning her master’s degree in bioethics and science policy from graduate school. Mothers who are addicted to media, Center for Human Technology And as a research assistant at Duke Margolis Institute of Health Policy. In these roles, Douglas conducted research on policy messaging strategies, partisan attitudes towards artificial intelligence, and care coordination networks in health care systems.
She also left a lasting impression on her colleagues.
“Dakota is the kindest of all, and he cares deeply about the community she is involved in,” wrote Reagan McRae, a graduate school graduate school of ’24, in an email to The Chronicle. “…She shows up in small and large ways for her friends, family and the community, encouraging her to ask for help when she needs it.”
Another friend and companion of Douglas, Liz Sparacino, Graduate School ’24, agreed.
“Dakota is a very thoughtful leader who has the ability to advocate for those who are not at the table,” she wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “She leads with purpose and grace and makes her an exceptional candidate.”
Douglas is currently a Howard medical student and will be earning a Juris Doctor after completing his Medicine.
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“It’s an honor and a privilege to be at this stage, and I can share the ideas I have and learn more about what it’s like to help the university exist as long as Duke has,” Douglas said.
| Managing the Feature Editor
Clai Lanford is a sophomore in Trinity and features the managing editor for the news department.
