ROAD TO THE VACCINE 8
KEY TO HOMEOWNERSHIP 11 PASSION FOR SERVICE 14
NE W S YOU CA N USE • A P R I L / M AY 2021
A Remote Future
Editor’s Note LEANORA MINAI
My Dog, and a Window Late last year, we invited you to share your preferences for telecommuting in a postpandemic world. It had been nine months since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that forced many of us off campus. Your survey answers were illuminating and serve as the basis of this issue’s cover story. Of slightly more than 2,200 staff and faculty responses, 74 percent of colleagues want to work remotely three to five days per week, while 3 percent favor no remote work. No commute, enhanced productivity, and flexibility, in that order, are top benefits of telecommuting, while a boundary between work and life is the leading challenge. Before the pandemic, Mary Reinecke, manager of electronic commerce at Duke, had a work office with no windows. After quarantine, she purchased a sit-stand desk and placed it in front of windows in her home. “I absolutely LOVE being able to look outside,” she wrote in her survey response. Mary’s sentiments mirrored scores of positive remarks around the productivity and wellness benefits of remote work: comfortable clothes, money savings, elder and pet care, and lower stress, among other advantages. For me, my desk on campus sits in a room with no windows, and that room is in a suite with no windows – a place colleagues in the building gather for shelter during tornado warnings. At home, I enjoy window views. Another perk is the latitude to walk my Labrador, Vincenzo. He’s a calmer, happier dog, and I feel better with more sunshine, too. Some of you noted in the survey that you miss work friends, in-person collaboration and seeing pretty campus spaces. Duke leaders are examining these concerns as they consider hybrid work arrangements for roles that are able to fit within a telecommuting structure. In Duke Human Resources, our office (Communication Services) is part of a 90-day pilot to assess what positions can transition primarily to a work-from-home arrangement. “When we first started working remotely, everyone kept asking when we would go back,” said Paul Grantham, assistant vice president for Communication Services. “But over the course of the year, that changed to people asking if they could continue working remotely.” As you’ll read in this issue, creating the future of telecommuting is a work in progress at Duke. With the COVID-19 vaccination available to all staff and faculty, we enter more hopeful times, and we look forward to sharing your postpandemic work and life stories. 2
WORKING@DUKE WORKING@DUKE
CONTENTS 4
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4 A Remote Future
At some point, the coronavirus crisis will be controlled, and thousands of Duke employees will return to campus in some capacity. But what that looks like is a work in progress, a focus of leaders who are shaping the institution’s postpandemic landscape.
8 The Road to a COVID-19 Vaccine
How the first 1,086 Duke Health employees got vaccinated. Follow the journey that started last year with early planning to the first dose in the arm of Faye Williams.
10 Pathway to Better Health
Even in a pandemic, keep up with screenings and preventive care to avoid concerns down the road.
11 A key to home homeownership 12 School of Nursing celebrates 90 years 13 How to host an accessible online meeting 14 Dennis Kennedy’s passion for service 15 Working Toward Racial Justice: Duke Libraries commits to prioritizing the history of Black people
Contact us Editor/Executive Director of Communications: Leanora Minai (919) 681-4533 leanora.minai@duke.edu Assistant Vice President: Paul S. Grantham (919) 681-4534 paul.grantham@duke.edu
Graphic Design & Layout: Paul Figuerado (919) 684-2107 paul.figuerado@duke.edu
Jonathan Black Writer (919) 681-9965 jonathan.c.black@duke.edu
Stephen Schramm Senior Writer (919) 684-4639 stephen.schramm@duke.edu
Working@Duke is published every other month by Duke’s Office of Communication Services. We invite your feedback and story ideas. Send email to working@duke.edu or call (919) 681-4533.
Visit Working@Duke daily on Duke Today: working.duke.edu
Cover: A desk and cubicles sit empty during quarantine in Duke Human Resources. Photo by Alex Boerner.
2017, 2014 Gold, 2019, 2015, 2013, Silver, 2016, 2009, 2007 Bronze, Print Internal Audience Publications and 2012, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007 Gold Medal, Internal Periodical Staff Writing
BRIEFLY Cultivate new skills with LinkedIn Learning
Flexibility for 2020 and 2021 reimbursement accounts
Duke staff, faculty and students have access to more than 16,000 courses at no charge through LinkedIn Learning. Formerly Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning’s library includes video tutorials on business, software, wellness, creative topics and more. In addition, the platform can help with remote work and managing virtual teams with instruction on Zoom, Skype and other collaboration tools. “You can learn anytime from anywhere,” said Trina Rodriguez, education and training coordinator for Duke’s Office of Information Technology (OIT). LinkedIn Learning adds new courses weekly that vary in duration and depth. In addition, users can download content to watch on desktop or mobile devices without WiFi and don’t need a LinkedIn profile to use the service. However, if you have a LinkedIn profile, you can showcase completed courses and get targeted recommendations for other courses. Get started with your learning: bit.ly/LinkedInLearningDuke.
Duke has adopted new provisions based on the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) that allow staff and faculty greater flexibility in using remaining 2020 balances and making changes to 2021 elections for Duke’s healthcare and dependent care reimbursement accounts. Employees can carry over the full amount of unused 2020 balances in health and dependent care reimbursement accounts for payment of 2021 expenses. Additional provisions permit employees more flexibility in making prospective, mid-year changes to both accounts. The changes help address concerns from participants in both programs about typical health and daycare services that were Stacey Mangum used her Health Care Reimbursement either unavailable or deferred during 2020 Account for her husband’s due to the pandemic. This resulted in larger surgery-related expenses. unused 2020 account balances, funded by pre-tax earnings, which otherwise would have been forfeited due to the “use-it-or-lose-it” rule ordinarily required under the Internal Revenue Code. Participants can also make adjustments to this year’s elections based on unanticipated needs related to the ongoing pandemic. More detailed information and an FAQ are available at hr.duke. edu/benefits/reimbursement-accounts/changes. Questions? Write benefits@duke.edu or call 919-684-5600.
Commencement may be celebrated in-person on May 2 A spring tradition may be revived as Duke University has tentative plans to celebrate the Class of 2021 during an in-person commencement ceremony on May 2 at Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium. Last year’s ceremony was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Attendance at this year’s event will be limited to undergraduate students in the Class of 2021 who have been regular participants in Duke’s COVID-19 surveillance testing program. Masking, distancing and all other state and local safety guidelines would be followed. “Our primary goal is to offer students the opportunity to experience this once-in-a-lifetime event safely,” said Duke University President Vincent E. Price. “With the pandemic still very much in flux, we will continue to monitor our circumstances and public health guidelines and adjust our plans accordingly.” A live stream of the event is expected to be broadcast at commencement.duke.edu. For the latest updates, including information on graduate and professional school ceremonies, visit commencement.duke.edu.
Employee discount for baked treats Chez Moi Bakery, a Durhambusiness selling homemade desserts for pickup and delivery in Durham, is offering a discount for Duke employees. Durham resident Rhonda Jones started Chez Moi Bakery from her home kitchen in 2005 after bringing back rum from a Caribbean cruise. Jones makes lemon and lime curds, carrot cakes and lemon cakes, but her signature is the brown sugar vanilla rum cake. Her other rum cakes can be flavored with banana, brown sugar, black cherry, pineapple or coconut. “I truly care about the quality of my product,” she said. Duke staff and faculty get 10 percent off Chez Moi Bakery [iloverumcake.com] products, which are available for pickup or delivery in Durham and also available for nationwide shipping. Use the discount code “DUKEPERQ” when ordering online through the Chez Moi website. A valid Duke ID must be presented at pickup to confirm the discount. Find more details at hr.duke.edu/discounts and select “Food & Restaurants.”
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A Remote Future Envisioning a hybrid workplace at Duke
With thousands of Duke employees working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, scenes like this one in Duke Human Resources offices have become common. Photo by Alex Boerner.
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n most mornings, Heather Rabalais laces up her Brooks sneakers and ventures onto the streets of her Hillsborough neighborhood. It’s a habit that began after the pandemic forced her to work from home, and she replaced her daily commute to campus with walks. A year later, she’s lost 22 pounds, completed a virtual 5K and views her peaceful morning routine as an essential part of her day. And like most colleagues, she credits the shift to remote work with setting the conditions for a healthier lifestyle and more productive workday. “Working from home has given me that flexibility,” said Rabalais, 49, a Pratt School of Engineering program coordinator. Rabalais knows that, at some point, the coronavirus crisis will begin to be controlled as all staff and faculty have the opportunity to become fully vaccinated, and she – like thousands of other Duke employees – may return to campus in some capacity. What that looks like is a focus of Duke leaders, who are shaping the institution’s post-pandemic work landscape. A Work-From-Home Committee of 25 university and medical center leaders has been exploring telecommuting strategies for Duke staff. The committee highlighted that Duke’s overall remote work approach will evolve and require flexibility at the school, department and unit level due to Duke’s variety of roles. And any approach must also weigh maintaining camaraderie and connection to the wider institution. In some units, a 90-day work-fromhome pilot is underway to assess positions that could primarily remain remote beyond the pandemic. To assess remote work preferences, Working@Duke conducted an online poll of Duke staff and faculty late last year to gauge how often employees would prefer to work remotely after COVID-19 is no longer a threat. Of the
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Without a commute for the past year, Heather Rabalais discovered a new passion in running and lost 22 pounds. Photo by Alex Boerner. WORKING@DUKE
slightly more than 2,200 employees who responded, 74 percent would prefer to work remotely three to five days per week, while 3 percent favored no remote work. Employees ranked lack of a commute, enhanced productivity, and flexibility during the day, in that order, as top benefits of remote work. A clear boundary between work and life was the top challenge. These sentiments align with national data, including a January 2021 “U.S. Remote Work Survey” from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), an international accounting and consulting firm, in which 55 percent of employees Daniel Ennis said they would prefer to work remotely at least three days per week after the pandemic. For institutions of higher learning, known for collaboration and shared culture, the widespread embrace of remote work is new. That’s why Daniel Ennis, Duke’s executive vice president, and other campus leaders, will take a measured approach, one that responds to the positive outcomes that employees have experienced in the past year, while also ensuring that team connections and values are not lost. Ennis said that some remote work strategies could align with institutional objectives around the climate and environment. With thousands of employees commuting by car to campus daily, a telecommuting arrangement would help Duke reduce emissions and reach its target to become climate neutral by 2024. “There’s a lot to be said for revisiting your workplace policies and the issues of transportation and commuting, and the environmental impacts,” Ennis said.
It Will Take Time As colleagues in the Office of Research Administration finished up work last March, Laurianne Torres sent an email preparing them for a possibility that the pandemic would keep them from returning to their Erwin Square offices. Torres, the Duke University School of Medicine’s associate dean for Research Administration, reminded her roughly 40-person group to take home laptops, files and anything else to work from home. But before she hit send, the open-ended nature of the crisis caused her to add one more bit of advice. “I told everyone to clear out anything they might have in the refrigerator,” Torres said. “I didn’t know if this was going to last a week or a month. I certainly didn’t think it was going to be a year.” Like many Duke employees, Torres and her colleagues are still working remotely and are unsure what to make of a post-pandemic work rhythm. Andy Brantley, president and CEO of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), said that rethinking when, where and how employees work will be a high priority for institutions in the coming months. “We will have institutions that embrace the need to change and be flexible to attract and retain talent,” Brantley said. “There will be others that choose not to do so. Some of them might be successful, but I think a lot of them will suffer because they did not adapt.”
POST-COVID REMOTE WORK PREFERENCE After COVID-19 is no longer a threat, how often would you prefer to work remotely? None 3.2% 5 days 35.9%
1 day 6% 2 days 16.6%
3 days 22.6%
4 days 15.7%
Source: Working@Duke Remote Work Questionnaire, December 2020.
TOP BENEFITS OF WORKING REMOTELY Employees ranked these as the top benefits of working from home.
1. No commute (55%) 2. Enhanced productivity (17%) 3. Flexibility to take breaks (16%) 4. More family time (7%) 5. Other (5%)
TOP CHALLENGES OF WORKING REMOTELY Employees ranked these as the top challenges Liisa Trent has filled multiple journals by of working from home. documenting her pandemic experience. Photo courtesy of Liisa Trent.
1. Setting work-life boundaries (38%) 2. Social isolation (30%) 3. Technology (16%) 4. Other (16%) Source: Working@Duke Remote Work Questionnaire, December 2020.
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While some jobs at Duke in Finance, Research Administration and Human Resources may become primarily remote, Duke’s approach to remote work will continue to evolve. Among details to resolve are the creation of policies and procedures and adding language to descriptions of certain job positions that would be primarily remote. Given the wide array of work done at Duke, not every position will fit neatly into a telecommuting arrangement. Chris Freel, associate vice president for Research and a member of the Work-From-Home Committee, said finding a solution that works for the varied needs of the research community won’t be a quick process. “There are things that we knew were such major shifts from our current culture that they couldn’t be enacted immediately in a thoughtful way,” Freel said. “And since all of our units are all so independent, based on their different disciplines and the pressures they face, they are going to have to think through this transition and that will take time.” During periodic check-ins with her team members, Torres heard a common concern from colleagues that uncertainty about future arrangements left them unsettled. In February, after Torres learned her group would likely not return to their offices fulltime, she encouraged colleagues to pack up offices. Chrystal Benson has been able to spend more time with her daughter, Mina Rose, while working from home in Fayetteville. Photo courtesy of Chrystal Benson.
“I think they felt like they finally knew something and could come up with a new normal for themselves,” Torres said.
One Approach Won’t Fit All
Tim Breslin works from his home office in Holly Springs. Photo courtesy of Tim Breslin.
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Before the pandemic, Tim Breslin, regional development director for Duke Alumni Engagement and Development, traveled twice a month to meet Duke parents and alumni in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado and Virginia. Since the pandemic, he’s enjoyed working from the sunlit office in the Holly Springs home he shares with his wife, three children and Australian shepherd-husky mix, Sascha. With a job that’s kept him on the move, Breslin would seem like a prime candidate to work remotely after the pandemic. But it’s not that simple. Recognizing that being physically present keeps him connected with colleagues and campus, Breslin would like to return to the office once a week. “There’s an energy about being on campus and working next to your colleagues that you miss out on at home,” Breslin said. As Duke envisions its post-COVID work landscape, not all positions can fully detach from campus. While a large amount of work can be done remotely, lab research, hands-on instruction and front-line health care can’t be done from home. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach here,” said David Smithwick, assistant vice president for Rewards and Recognition in Duke Human Resources and co-chair of the Work-FromHome Committee.
Lisa Worster, chief of staff to the vice president for Duke Alumni Engagement and Development who served on the Work-From-Home Committee, anticipates that her team will likely adopt a hybrid remote work model with staff splitting time between home and office. She said her team has done exceptional work during the pandemic, most notably collaborating with other offices on the “Keep Exploring” website that connects students with academic, professional development and career opportunities. “We have to continue being flexible,” Worster said. While segments of Duke University Health System (DHTS) that handle patient care continue to work on-site, some support units have worked While Kai Kelley Jr. joined Duke last March, he has only visited his office at Smith Warehouse twice. from home. Dan Bruno, chief operating officer of Photo by Alex Boerner. DHTS, envisions that about 700 of 1,000 positions in DHTS – most involving software or website roles – “I don’t feel like an outsider, but I also feel like there’s an will shift to a primarily remote structure. aspect of the Career Center culture that I haven’t experienced “DHTS staff showed grit and perseverance in completing yet,” Kelley said. their work-from-home without a hitch,” Bruno said. While embracing remote work presents procedural hurdles, Chrystal Benson, DHTS SharePoint architect and technical retaining an institutional culture from afar is perhaps the lead, has worked from her Fayetteville home since last March. trickiest. Duke’s Work-From-Home Committee discussed ways Benson, who had her first child last August, is among the hybrid or remote teams can maintain a connection to campus nearly 36 percent of Duke employees who, according to the through monthly or bi-monthly on-site staff meetings and Working@Duke poll late last year, would prefer to work regular teleconferences to discuss topics other than work. remotely five days per week post-pandemic. For Kelley, the bond he’s built with co-workers came down “Being able to work from home and deal with having a to something much simpler. Like his colleagues, he enjoys baby has been a total game changer,” Benson said. “I can’t even helping Duke students chart their future through the Career imagine what my schedule would look like if I had to take the Center. That shared passion unites them in a way that spans the baby to daycare and then do the 90-minute drive.” distance between remote workspaces. “It would be different if you work with people who just come in to do a job,” Kelley said. “Because we love the work we do, Maintaining Culture is Crucial even though we can’t be in the same space, we still appreciate the In January, Kai Kelley Jr. and colleagues in the Duke people on the other side of the screen.” Career Center gathered on a Zoom meeting to say farewell to a By Stephen Schramm, Jonathan Black and Leanora Minai coworker. The group laughed about office traditions, such as the wheeled cart filled with fresh-baked cookies used for spreading smiles and treats around the office. While Kelley has been on staff for nearly a year, he’s still waiting to make his first office memory. Kelley started as the event and program support coordinator for the Career Center’s Employer Relations team on March 16, 2020, the same day Duke instituted work-from-home orders due to COVID-19. Ever since – including the six months he served as a COVID-19 lead contact tracer for Student Health – Kelley has worked remotely. Aside from one brief visit to pick up a computer, Kelley’s only trip to his team’s Smith Warehouse workspace came during his job interview.
A recent quiet moment on Duke’s West Campus. Photo by University Communications.
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THE ROAD TO A
COVID-19 Vaccine How the first 1,086 Duke Health employees got vaccinated
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hen Faye Williams arrived for her shift on Monday, December 14, she didn’t expect to become part of history. Williams, who retired after 40 years as a nurse for the Durham VA Health Care System, had been working part-time, screening patients bound for Duke Health appointments for COVID-19 symptoms. On that December day in 2020, a colleague approached Williams with news that Duke Health would be administering its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. She started to ask Williams if she would be interested in one. “Before she could get it out of her mouth, I said ‘Absolutely, I’ll do it,’” Williams said. COVID-19 had already robbed Williams, 67, of so much. She longed to hug and spend time with nieces and nephews, sorority sisters, and friends from church. For Williams, the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine represented progress toward reclaiming her old life, as it does for all staff and faculty who now have the opportunity to get vaccinated. When Williams walked into the vaccination site
in the Searle Center later that day, the television cameras and reporters signaled that hers would be no ordinary vaccination. Williams was the first Duke Health caregiver to receive the vaccine at Duke, which immunized 1,086 health system employees during the week of December 14. The vaccine’s journey through Duke, from delivery of the first batch at a hospital loading dock to Williams’ left shoulder, took months of planning, preparation and patience from employees across Duke.
A Freezer Colder Than Antarctica Last fall, when Duke officials began planning for distribution of the vaccine, there were many unknowns, including which vaccine Duke would receive, when it would arrive and how much Duke would get. That required leaders to draw on experience and intuition and anticipate curveballs. Jason Zivica, Duke Health’s director of emergency preparedness and business continuity, stayed ahead of a potential challenge when he learned that Pfizer’s vaccine needed storage at minus-70 degrees Celsius, a temperature colder than winter in Antarctica.
Daryl Blackburn, Duke Regional Hospital Pharmacy’s assistant director, wears protective eyewear and gloves to store the hospital’s first shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in an ultra-cold freezer. Photo by April Dudash.
“We knew ultra-cold freezers would probably be needed, and that they might end up being hard to find, so we started planning that first thing,” Zivica said. Duke already had one ultra-cold freezer at Duke University Hospital, but in October, Zivica helped secure three more – two for Duke Regional Hospital and one for Duke Raleigh Hospital. Slightly larger than a standard home refrigerator, the freezers are capable of holding as many as 50,000 doses. And last fall, as national demand for freezers surged, Duke was a step ahead. “If the vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, then we needed to do everything we can to get it out there,” Zivica said.
Building an Appointment System
Nursing Program Manager Rita Oakes administers Duke’s first COVID-19 vaccination to Faye Williams on December 14. Photo by Shawn Rocco.
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With the vaccine in hand, Duke needed a way for employees to schedule an appointment for their first dose. But before the vaccine appointment website launched, Ramy Sharaf tried to break the system that would serve up to 4,100 Duke Health employees within hours of the site going live.
Duke’s first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine were given on December 14 to staff members from Duke University Hospital. Photo by Shawn Rocco.
He submitted appointment requests without required information, tried to schedule multiple appointments and performed dozens of tests to ensure the system worked. “I’ll never forget doing this work,” said Sharaf, business systems analyst for Duke Employee Occupational Health and Wellness. “This experience expanded my perspective on health care and how to employ technology in ending the pandemic.” Ramy Sharaf Sharaf was part of a six-person team that developed the online scheduling and record-keeping platforms for Duke’s employee vaccination rollout. He helped vet a dozen scheduling platforms before finding one that had rigorous security, was easy to customize and chose the time, date and location for a vaccination. With the system handling scores of appointments each week, Sharaf and colleagues continue to test the online backbone of Duke’s vaccination effort. “We’re all just trying to honestly make a difference in the community and work together,” Sharaf said.
Setting the Stage Last fall, Rebecca Cray Concha was part of the team tasked with setting up Duke’s COVID-19 vaccine sites. After long days of helping unlock logistical challenges, she felt both exhausted and exhilarated. “Sometimes I’d get home and I remember that we’re delivering a vaccine in a pandemic,” Concha said. “It’s just kind of wild.” Starting last October, Concha, Duke University Hospital’s administrative fellow who helped with the employee influenza vaccination effort, worked on setting up the first COVID-19 vaccination site in the Searle Center.
She and her team drew on relationships with Duke’s Employee Occupational Health and Wellness, the Department of Clinical Education & Professional Development, School of Nursing and School of Medicine to find staff to register patients and reconstitute and deliver the COVID-19 vaccine. Her group found roughly 24 tables and 48 chairs, a backup supply of syringes, and sanitizing wipes, among other supplies. By December, the Searle Center site was ready to deliver its first doses. With other sites to open, Concha’s work was far from done. “I just feel so lucky to be a part of this moment,” she said.
Ready to Go Early on December 14, Jordan DeAngelis moved Duke Health’s first shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from a box with dry ice into an ultra-cold freezer. After months of planning and coordination, Duke staff members were ready to turn this shipment into vaccinations for 1,086 health system employees over the week. “It was a surreal moment,” said DeAngelis, coordinator of pharmacy procurement and emergency preparedness for Duke University Hospital. Duke’s first shipment arrived in 585 clear vials – each containing at least five doses – inside a single cardboard box. Later, DeAngelis and a team of nurses prepared the first vaccines for use, inverting vials 20 times, cleaning them with anti-septic wipes and diluting the Jordan DeAngelis lifts Duke’s first allotment of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine with sodium COVID-19 vaccines out of a cardboard box with dry ice. Photo by Shawn Rocco. chloride to ready it for immunization. Later that day, as the first dozen Duke employees, led by Faye Williams, received their doses, DeAngelis stood by. “It was amazing to think three months before, we didn’t know if we’d even have a vaccine in 2020," DeAngelis said. “I was acutely aware that this was a historic and monumental day.” By Jonathan Black and Stephen Schramm
Stay informed about Duke’s vaccination plans for staff, faculty and students at covidvaccine.duke.edu
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Staying on a Pathway to Better Health
Wanda Amons walks with her dog, Cola, in her Durham neighborhood. Photo by Stephen Schramm.
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Even in COVID-19, keep up with screenings and preventive care
hether she’s walking her dog, Cola, or doing water aerobics at the Duke Health & Fitness Center, Wanda Amons enjoys staying active. But with type 2 diabetes and arthritis in her left knee, Amons, 64, knows that to maintain that lifestyle, she must stay vigilant. So last fall, Amons decided to keep the long-scheduled appointment for her annual medical physical. While the pandemic forced her to work remotely and limited trips away from home, the value of seeing her doctor outweighed any risk of venturing out. “It was important to continue with my visits so I know where I stand with my Dr. Brian Antono health,” said Amons, a Duke Children’s Hospital staff assistant who has worked at Duke for 12 years. Amons’ situation is common during the pandemic as people balance concerns about the virus with the need to continue preventive visits such as colonoscopies and mammograms. According to the Health Care Cost Institute, which compiles national health care data for policymakers, mammograms were down nearly 80 percent in the early months of the pandemic compared with the same period a year earlier. Colonoscopies were down nearly 90 percent. For adults covered by Duke employee medical plans, preventive medicine visits of all kinds dropped 74 percent in May 2020 compared to a year earlier. “You shouldn’t neglect these visits because it could lead to
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trouble down the road,” said Dr. Brian Antono, a family medicine and primary care doctor with Duke Family Medicine and Community Health. For adults on Duke medical plans, the frequency of preventive care visits returned to pre-pandemic levels by the fall of 2020. That’s a welcome development since a study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimated that staying current on preventive care visits could save as many as 100,000 lives each year. Mammograms and colonoscopies are covered in full under Duke’s employee health plans. Annual physicals are covered with an office co-pay. Duke health plan members can also take part in most office visits virtually through phone or video with a regular co-pay. Members of Duke Select, the most popular employee plan, have $20 co-pays for primary care visits; $55 for specialists. “There’s more than one way to interact with us, and we will work with your concerns,” Antono said. “We just care about getting you the care you need.” At her in-person visit, Amons got help for her knee pain, received praise for losing 10 pounds and left with peace of mind. “I’d tell anybody to keep those visits up, especially as you get older,” Amons said. “It’s worth it.” By Stephen Schramm
Learn more about employee medical benefits at hr.duke.edu/benefits
A Key to
Homeownership
Duke Homebuyers Club helps employees become first-time home buyers
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tacie Daye spends a lot of time at her kitchen island, creating meals such as Jamaican beef patties, shrimp curry and salads with collard greens, arugula and peppers from her garden. The kitchen island, with its sparkling granite countertop, is one of Daye’s favorite features in the north Durham house she and her husband Craig purchased in 2018. The couple received guidance on buying their first home through the Duke Homebuyers Club, an employee program organized by Duke’s Office of Durham and Community Affairs. “I never would have felt ready to make the jump,” said Daye, radiologic technologist with Duke Radiology who rented apartments before purchasing the home. The Duke Homebuyers Club connects all Duke employees with financial literacy and resources to prepare them to navigate the process as first-time buyers. Through the coming year, live sessions will be held monthly on Zoom, covering such topics as budgeting, credit repair, qualifying for a mortgage and working with a realtor. Any Duke employee can participate in the program. “Buying a home is a complicated journey,” said Eliza Mathew, a senior Stacie Daye purchased her first home in Durham with help from the Duke Homebuyers Club program. Photo courtesy programming coordinator for the Duke Office of Durham and Community Affairs. of Stacie Daye. “The club is here to help participants implement positive practices for home buying. We’re going to walk with you on that journey.” Daye’s house is one of 71 homes that employees purchased with the help of the program since it started in 2013. The program, which has helped 350 employees, began as a way to connect colleagues with home-buying opportunities in Durham’s Southside neighborhood. It has since expanded to focus on home-buying education across the Triangle area. “Your residence becomes a foundation in which you can express yourself and put down roots,” said Mayme Webb-Bledsoe, an assistant vice president for Duke’s Office of Durham and Community Affairs. Daye, 44, started planting the seeds for her home ownership when she attended Duke Homebuyers Club sessions in 2017 and 2018. She learned about loans, interest rates and closing costs and started saving by canceling her cable subscription. She also competitively searched to secure a home loan with an interest rate of 3.5 percent after an initial bank offered 6.5 percent. “Owning a home is like having an oasis,” Daye said. “I walk through my front door and have this tremendous pride that I own everything in this place. It’s absolutely beautiful.” By Jonathan Black
Get help buying your first home at community.duke.edu/neighborhoods/homebuyers-club
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Celebrating 90 Years of Nursing Innovation Duke’s School of Nursing evolves to meet the needs of nursing care
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In 1931, the first class of Duke University School of Nursing students started a legacy of excellence and innovation that continues today. Photo courtesy of Duke University Medical Center Archives.
hen Barbara Turner joined the Duke University School of Nursing faculty in 1993, the school was in the midst of reinventing itself. A few years after effectively closing to reshape its degree offerings, the school had 10 faculty members and around 50 students. But, Turner recalls, it had leaders who envisioned big things in the school’s future. “They told us where they saw the school going and that we should come along for the ride,” said Turner, the Elizabeth P. Hanes Professor of Nursing and the school’s longest-serving current faculty member. As it celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, the School of Nursing has 102 faculty, 147 staff members and state-of-the-art facilities. It’s ranked the #2 best graduate school for nursing and #3 for the best online graduate nursing program by U.S. News & World Report. A national leader in education and research, the school built a legacy of innovation, embracing fresh ideas and evolving to meet the School of Nursing staff and faculty members share information about the needs of the nursing profession. Last year, the school had 1,174 students, nursing profession at a summer camp in 2004. Photo courtesy of Amie Koch. $7.28 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health and 74 graduates hired by Duke Health. “The school has been around since the 1930s, but it still feels relatively young,” said Dean Marion E. Broome. When the school welcomed its first class of 24 students in 1931, the main mission was to train nurses for the new Duke University Hospital. In the following decades, the school broadened its ambitions. In response to demand for nurses as World War II approached, the school welcomed 84 new students in 1941, up from 58 the year before. Wartime classes eventually got as large as 121 students. As health care advances required nurses with more specialized skills, Duke became a pacesetter in graduate education, creating the nation’s first Master of Science in Nursing degree meant for clinical nurses instead of nurses bound for teaching roles. The past several decades have seen the school continue to respond to needs of the nursing profession. To create more highly skilled nurses in rural areas, the school became a pioneer in online distance education in the 1990s, which paid off during the pandemic when the school needed to deliver world-class educational experiences online. And to address a nationwide nursing shortage, the school added the 16-month Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in 2003, opening up the profession to people with varied educational backgrounds. “To be where we are now, it’s amazing,” said Turner, the school’s longest-serving current faculty member. “If you’ve got faculty and staff committed to a mission, anything can happen.”
By Stephen Schramm
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Learn more about the School of Nursing at nursing.duke.edu/about-us
Joel Crawford-Smith uses subtitles during an online meeting. Photo courtesy of Joel Crawford-Smith.
How to Host an Accessible Online Gathering
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Best practices for engaging all abilities with online channels
ue to COVID-19, staff in Undergraduate Admissions had to rely more on virtual presentations, so they overhauled their PowerPoint decks, replacing photo collages of Duke University Chapel, Abele Quad and Cameron Indoor Stadium with a single image per slide. They made the change because multiple images on one slide made the text and pictures too small for participants to view on a computer screen. “We wanted to meet accessibility standards for people who might have a hard time seeing our presentations at home,” said Mark Dudley, assistant director of Undergraduate Admissions. With many schools, departments and units using online channels to engage audiences, Duke’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) offers a webinar as a helpful resource for how to make activities and meetings accessible. “You don’t know who’s coming to your meeting or event, so you need to make sure it’s ready for everyone regardless of their abilities,” said Joel CrawfordSmith, OIT’s senior web accessibility administrator. Here are some ways to get started.
Advertise accommodations
Information about how to request disability-related assistance should accompany an invitation for a virtual meeting or activity, Crawford-Smith said. In an email or calendar posting, list a contact person, their email and phone number, and a deadline to make a request. “Getting information out early gives your team time to prepare necessary accommodations and show others you’re welcoming,” Crawford-Smith said. For online meetings, Sarah Jean Barton, assistant professor of occupational therapy and theological ethics, checks on attendee needs and sends materials in advance. “I want people to have equitable access,” Barton said.
Enable engagement in real-time
Use free automatic closed captioning functions in Microsoft Teams and PowerPoint to help people who are hard of hearing. Automatic closed captioning on both platforms shows text of a speaker’s words so people can read along in real-time. Closed captioning is not yet available on Zoom. To enable settings in Microsoft Teams, select “More Options” then “Turn
Get more information: web.accessibility.duke.edu
on live captions” while in a meeting. For PowerPoint, select “Slide Show” and “Always Use Subtitles” before beginning your slide show. Sarah Park, librarian for engineering and computer science, shares her screen with students on Zoom so they can see her PowerPoint’s subtitles at the bottom of her presentation. “No one should feel left out,” Park said.
Follow-up with materials
Hosts of online gatherings can provide meeting notes, a recording and transcription after an event for participants to use at their own pace. Platform settings enable these features. Sue Mathias, a communications consultant for the Pratt School of Engineering who works with graduate students, shares recordings and transcriptions of classes with students along with the PowerPoint file. “We want to provide the resources to succeed,” Mathias said. By Jonathan Black
working.duke.edu
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A Passion for Service Master Plumber Dennis Kennedy serves as a volunteer firefighter
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ne evening last fall, as Dennis Kennedy headed home from work as a master plumber at Duke, he popped into a grocery store, roughly a half hour from his home in lower Alamance County. Wearing a sweatshirt from the Eli Whitney Fire Department, where he’s volunteered since 2019, Kennedy was stopped by a store employee. “Excuse me, are you with the Eli Whitney?” she asked. “Yes, ma’am,” Kennedy replied. The woman explained that her father had a heart attack at home in Alamance County and firefighters from nearby Eli Whitney, a small community about 20 minutes south of Burlington, answered the call. She recalled how firefighters tried valiantly to save her father, and comforted her family when they couldn’t. “You did everything you possibly could, and I wanted to thank you,” she told Kennedy, who helped with the call. Kennedy, who has worked at Duke for 21 years, has often wondered why, at age 50, he decided become a firefighter, serving alongside people several decades younger. Hearing how the fire department was a small light in one woman’s darkest moment reaffirmed that his improbable path was a correct one. “If you told me a few years ago that I’d be a firefighter, I’d have told you ‘you’re nuts,’” said Kennedy, who was recently named the Eli Whitney Fire Department’s Firefighter of the Year. “Now, here I am doing it and loving every second of it.” Kennedy’s firefighting journey began in the fall of 2018 when he participated in the Duke University Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy. The seven-week program gives Duke staff and faculty opportunities to learn about policing and shadow first responders.
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Dennis Kennedy, a firefighter and master plumber for Duke Facilities Management. Photo courtesy of Dennis Kennedy.
During a visit with the Duke Life Flight crew, Kennedy was moved by their selflessness. Driving home, he called his wife and told her he wanted to embrace that same spirit. “I couldn’t explain it,” Kennedy said. “I just needed to do something.” In early 2019, after taking classes with Durham Technical Community College’s Emergency Medical Science program, he passed the certification exam to become an emergency medical technician. After that, he began volunteering as an EMT with the Eli Whitney Fire Department in Alamance County. Realizing he could help more as a firefighter, he began training with the fire department in nearby Graham, learning about the science, strategy and safety involved in fighting fires. “It definitely snowballed, the more I did, the more I loved it,” Kennedy said. Kennedy’s passion has continued during the pandemic, which requires firefighters to wear N95 masks to every call. “I have an overwhelming drive to help,” Kennedy said. “COVID or not, nothing is going to change that.”
By Stephen Schramm
Got something you would like for us to cover? Write working@duke.edu
Racial
Toward Justice
Duke Libraries commits to prioritizing the history of Black people
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ast April, the Duke their courses are under way. University Libraries Staff will dedicate space to released findings from Black scholarship and develop a study of how Black an orientation for library students experience the security guards to foster libraries. positive relationships. The responses showed “The approach we take that, while the libraries were is that by improving spaces viewed positively, elements and services for firstleft some Black students generation college students feeling like the essential piece or Black students, we are of Duke wasn’t fully theirs. making things better for all Just weeks later, as library staff students,” said Emily Daly, planned next steps from the head of Assessment and study, the police killings of User Experience. Duke University Libraries has embraced the mission of making spaces, such as the Black citizens George Floyd Also, a research project by Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s Gothic Reading Room, more welcoming to all. and Breonna Taylor ignited a Photo courtesy of University Communications. Duke University Archives will nationwide dialogue on racism. investigate how slavery shaped “After that, there was a Duke’s history. University different kind of urgency,” said Associate University Librarian Archivist Valerie Gillispie took the step last fall of updating the Dracine Hodges. heavily-read university history page to include more information Facing national events and findings from the Black student on Duke’s racial history on the libraries’ website. study, Duke University Libraries staff members threw themselves And at the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, into developing a “Racial Justice Roadmap” for recruitment work continues on an audit of collection descriptions aimed and retention, inclusive library spaces, collections, research and at finding and fixing descriptions with outdated terms or instruction, and reckoning with Duke’s history. In July, the incomplete information. These reparative description projects are libraries’ Racial Justice Strategy Task Force of eight staff members a way to bring forward the Black experiences documented in the released the roadmap. library’s collection. Early roadmap steps, meant to spark community reflection, “There is work that has happened, but we know there is still included a series of virtual staff discussions on race and a 21-day a lot more to do,” Hodges said. “We all know this is a marathon staff challenge featuring readings and activities aimed at better and not a sprint.” understanding how race shapes everyday life. By Stephen Schramm “We wanted to help create a different level of awareness,” said Hodges, Racial Justice Strategy Task Force’s convener. Anti-Racist Roadmap Other activities such as making library spaces inclusive and Duke University Libraries, as part of its guiding principle, “Diversity creating ways to help faculty include more diverse scholarship in Strengthens Us,” laid out the steps to becoming a more inclusive part of campus and the wider community. Learn more: bit.ly/LibrariesRoadmap. working.duke.edu
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SOCIAL
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News You Can Use:
March 8
More of the Duke community are eligible receive COVID-19 vaccinations. The latest groups to be vaccinated include housekeeping, dining staff and faculty teaching in face-to-face settings. Read more: https://bddy.me/3cdJYO1 Working@Duke | #COVID19 | #OneMoreWay
Devin Demy @devdemy
Thanks for the awesome write up @WorkingatDuke I’m so proud to work with the team behind the teams as we #keepplaying and stay #dukeunited Working@Duke
@WorkingatDuke · Mar 1
Dedicated Devils: Devin Demyanovich protects @ DukeU athletes from injuries and #COVID19. http:// ow.ly/4Th450DJ1Qz @DukeATHLETICS @DukeWRES @ DukeFEN @DukeFH
Amid Pandemic, Buildings Open Construction that started before COVID-19 still moved forward, giving building openings a different feel. bit.ly/DukeCampus Projects2021 Virtual Meeting Etiquette A guide for common courtesies for your video calls and other online gatherings. bit.ly/VirtualApril2021 Retirees Renew Ties Former Duke employees find relief from the pandemic by taking short online classes from the safety of home. bit.ly/OLLIE2021
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