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The Graduate School Board of Visitors, established in 2010, serves an important advisory function for the dean of The Graduate School. Comprising alumni from a broad geographic area and representing the comprehensive nature of The Graduate School, the board helps to support and promote the mission of The Graduate School. The board considers and provides information and makes recommendations on matters relating to the graduate experience at Duke. It gives informal advice and assistance about programs and projects and enhances communication among the constituencies of The Graduate School.
Board of Visitors 2024–2025
Chair: Patricia Sánchez Abril A.B.'96, Coral Gables, Florida
Professor of Business Law and Associate Dean of the University of Miami Graduate School
Samagya Banskota Ph.D. ‘19, Brookline, Massachusetts
Assistant Professor at Boston University and Co-founder and Senior Scientist at Nvelop Therapeutics
Ninita Brown Ph.D.’06, MD’09, Atlanta, Georgia
Cataract and Glaucoma surgeon at Emory
Yang Chen M.S.'95, Ph.D.'97, P’28, Princeton Junction, New Jersey
Managing Director of BlackRock's Risk & Quantitative Analysis Group
Delisa Clay Ph.D.’21, Durham, NC
Sr. Global Program Manager at Amgen
Edwin Cooper A.M.'05, M.B.A.'07, Fayetteville, Georgia
Vice President of Finance and Business Unit CFO at Change Healthcare
Travis Dauwalter Ph.D.’21, Atlanta Georgia
Senior Director, Offer Management-Sustainable Building Tech at Honeywell
Joseph Davis A.M.’95, Ph.D.’02, Malvern, Pennsylvania
Global Chief Economist at Vanguard Group and Global Head of Investment Strategy Group
Pavan Desikan Ph.D.'00, Palo Alto, California
Software Engineer at Google, Inc.
Xiaobo Fan Ph.D.'04, Palo Alto, California
Tech Lead at Google, Inc.
Vernon Chun Jiang Ph.D.’94, Hillsborough, California
Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Cothera Bioscience
Jeannie Karl Ph.D.’00, Redwood City, California
Senior Director in Pharma Partnering Transactions at Genentech, Inc., a member of the Roche Group
Kivanc Kirgiz A.M.’97, Ph.D.’02, Mclean, Virginia
Vice President of Cornerstone Research
Srinivasan "Chini" Krishnan M.S.’91, Ph.D.’92, Palo Alto, California
Founder and CEO of Vimo, Inc.
Rachael Lau B.S.E.’20, M.S.’22, Ph.D. ’24, Washington, DC
Co-founder and Co-Manages a research cohort on earthquake risk and resiliency between Duke and the Institute of Engineering in Kathmandu, Nepal
June Mullaney Mader Ph.D.’86, Durham, North Carolina
Principal Consultant at GoForward, LLC
Sarah Mustillo A.M.'99, Ph.D.'01, South Bend, Indiana
Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at the University of Notre Dame
Michele Rasmussen Ph.D.’99, Chicago, Illinois
Vice Provost Student Affairs at Stanford
John A. Robson, Ph.D. ’77, Boulder, Colorado
Mary Manley Sapp A.B.’71, P’01, P’02, Reston, Virginia
Stephen Sapp A.B.’68, M.Div.’71, Ph.D.’75, P’01, P’02, Reston, Virginia
Joyce Scott Ph.D.’73, Greeley, Colorado
Vijay Srinivasan Ph.D.’95, P’26 Los Altos, California
Co-Founder of Major League Cricket (MLC)
Rebecca Stafford A.M.’01, Lafayette, California
Founder and Managing Partner of Hestia Venture Partners
Joshua Strayhorn A.M.’21, Ph.D.’23, Durham, North Carolina
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Parks Service
Ed Thomas A.B. ’98, Atlanta, Georgia
Founder and CEO of Hazel
Past Chairs
- Ronald Temple ’90, New York, New York
- Susan Wood M.S. '88, Palo Alto, California
- Catherine McKnight ’98, A.M.’04, Ph.D.’07, Brooklyn, NY
- Matt Rhodes-Kropf ’93, Ph.D.’99, Newton, MA
- Peter Allan Muoio Active PA G'88, Roslyn Harbor NY
- William Edwards Hunt Active PA T'84, Pittsburgh PA