Earlier this month, Duke received an $11 million donation from an anonymous alumni family. The majority of the gift, $8.75 million, will go towards the Sanford School of Public Policy, which is currently celebrating its 50th year.
Four million dollars of this donation will go towards creating the Grand Challenges of Public Policy Fellowship Fund, which will help fund the work of Sanford graduate students, with preference given to master of public policy students.
Another $4 million will go towards creating two new endowed professorships within Sanford. One of the professorships will be named the Tony and Teddie Brown Professorship, in honor of Anthony Brown, professor of the practice emeritus at Sanford, and his wife Teddie Brown. The other will be named the Bruce L. Payne professorship, in honor of Bruce Payne, a former public policy faculty member who founded the Hart Leadership Program.
The Hart Leadership Program’s mission is to “help students discover the power of leadership for public life,” according to its website. The donor, who studied public policy during his time at Duke, also participated in the Hart Leadership Program.
The remaining $3 million of the donation will provide expendable faculty funds for Sanford professors. These funds allow for flexible funding in different policy areas, the Sanford Annual fund, the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences annual fund, the Duke Athletics Legacy Fund and an endowment to provide faculty support in Trinity College’s department of economics.
The gift comes two years after the Duke Endowment, a private grantmaking foundation established by James B. Duke, gifted Sanford $10 million to invest in graduate fellowships, professorships and the school’s strategic priorities.
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Anisha Reddy is a Trinity junior and a senior editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.