Vicki Grossmann is director of the Good Shepherd Clinic and Children’s Home in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. She and her small medical team care for more than 2,000 indigent adults and orphan children a year.
A few years ago, eight-year-old twins came into the physical therapy clinic for neurologically-disabled children in Utah where Trac Norris, now a third-year student in the Duke Doctor of Physical Therapy program, volunteered while an undergraduate student. He noticed that they could not walk by themselves, that they were unable to communicate, and that they were blind. During their treatment, the parents told the therapists that one of the boys loved music. Norris set him down on a bench and placed a piano in front of him. The boy began to play.
Two weeks before her 19th birthday, Samantha Casper, MSN’18, had a car accident. She was headed out for a night of fun with a friend, but ended up at the hospital. The doctors told her mother that Casper had suffered a traumatic brain injury and that she might not survive. Casper has survived, but she was told that due to short term memory loss, she could never go back to college. But she had other plans. “My mother instilled in me ‘Do more, be more, don't give up,’” says Casper.
At the end of his second year of medical school, Dalton Hughes, a fifth-year student in the Medical Scientist Training Program, a dual MD/PhD program, ran into a friend who was struggling with psychiatric disorders.
The 2012 London Olympic Games played out like a fairy tale for Abby Johnston McGrath, MD’18. She stood on the podium, watching her country's flag rise up as they put a silver medal for synchronized diving around her neck, and she was inspired to continue diving at the 2016 Olympics.
Duke’s MD/PhD Program had a profound influence on David Ginsburg, who went on to become an international expert on several bleeding and clotting disorders.
Diane Havlir is a pioneer in HIV/AIDS research treatment, whose work has helped to transform HIV from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease.
Following in the footsteps of legendary Duke surgeon David Sabistan, current Chairman of Surgery Allan Kirk is one of the most respected transplant surgeons in the world.
Radiation oncologist Karen Winkfield has been honored throughout the country for her research and advocacy to improve access and health outcomes for minorities.
As founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute, Michael Merson is internationally respected as a seminal leader in global health and education.