Duke’s Board of Trustees gained five new members July 1.
The new additions include Amy Abernethy, School of Medicine ’94 and House Staff ’01; Melissa Bernstein, Trinity ‘87; Mike Stone, Trinity ‘84; Undergraduate Young Trustee Drew Greene, Trinity ‘24; and Graduate/Professional Young Trustee Rickard Stureborg, current doctoral candidate in computer science.
Abernathy is the co-founder of Highlander Health and formerly served as principal deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Bernstein is the co-founder of toy company Melissa & Doug, and Stone is a co-managing partner of investment management firm TPG Growth and chief investment officer of The Rise Fund.
Abernethy, Bernstein and Stone will serve six-year terms through 2030. Greene will serve a two-year term, and Stureborg will serve a three-year term. Both Greene and Stureborg will act as non-voting observing members during their first year on the Board.
The Board of Trustees is Duke’s governing body and fiduciary, and members are broadly responsible for ensuring the University’s long-term sustainability. These new additions to the Board will join current members in drawing on personal experience to provide unique insights when participating in discussions about the University’s future and when voting on policy or strategic matters.
The new trustees will be able to give input on the Board’s wide range of responsibilities, from educational policy and financial management to oversight of the Duke University Health System and the investment of the University’s endowment.
Abernethy is a hematologist/oncologist and palliative medicine physician. She uses her expertise as an “internationally recognized clinical data expert and clinical researcher” to work towards Highlander Health’s goal of accelerating clinical evidence generation in medical advancements and helping safe and effective treatments reach patients faster.
Abernethy previously served as principal deputy commissioner at the FDA — the agency’s second-in-command. In this role, she was responsible for overseeing the agency’s day-to-day operations and key initiatives across drug, device, tobacco and food regulation. She also acted as the FDA's chief information officer.
Abernethy has held several other executive roles in the health sector, including president of product development and chief medical officer at Verily and chief medical officer, chief scientific officer and senior vice president of oncology at Flatiron Health.
At Duke, Abernethy held professorships at Duke Health and School of Medicine from 2002 to 2015. She also directed the Duke Cancer Care Research Program through the Duke Cancer Institute and the Center for Learning Health Care in the Duke Clinical Research Institute, working to advance cancer and serious illness care.
She has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumna by the School of Medicine and has held significant roles in the National Academy of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Abernethy has a master’s degree from Duke, where she also completed her residency and fellowship. She holds a Doctor of Medicine from Flinders University and a Bachelor of Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Bernstein is the co-founder of Melissa & Doug, a leading U.S. children’s toy brand. Over the past 30 years, she and her husband Doug have led a company that has created over 2,000 products and sold over a billion dollars worth of toys worldwide with the aim of fostering imagination and self-discovery in children.
The Bernsteins sold Melissa & Doug in 2024 and embarked on a new venture: Lifelines. Lifelines focuses on designing well-being tools for adults, promoting stress relief through sensory immersion.
At Duke, Bernstein has served on the Board of Visitors for Trinity College and chaired Duke’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Board of Advisors. She and her husband also created the accelerator program Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs, through which they have personally mentored more than 80 Duke students committed to growing start-ups.
Through her personal journey of self-discovery and acceptance, Bernstein aims to inspire both children and adults by fostering creativity and well-being in all stages of life.
Stone is the chief investment officer of The Rise Fund, which invests in companies “driving measurable social and environmental impact alongside business performance and strong returns.” He is also the founder and a managing member of FS Investors, a family office based in San Diego.
Stone previously founded and served as non-executive chairman at J.H. Whitney Investment Management, which focuses on Asia-based investment management. He is a retired senior partner and past president of J.H. Whitney & Co.
Stone holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke and a Master of Business from Harvard Business School. He has served on the Boards of The Fuqua School of Business and Duke’s Library Advisory Board.
Beyond Duke, Stone serves on the Boards of Advisors for the Boston Public Library and Scripps Research, the Madison Council for the Library of Congress and the Investment Committee of Rady Children’s Hospital. Additionally, Stone is the chairman of Wilderness Holdings and sits on several private boards, such as Big River Steel and Beautycounter.
Greene, nominated by the Undergraduate Young Trustee Nominating Committee, recently graduated as a Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholar with a major in public policy studies and minors in education and inequality studies.
Starting this fall, Greene will pursue a master’s degree in education and learning at the University of Turku in Finland as a Fulbright Scholar.
Greene held various positions during his time at Duke, including positions in the Graduate School, the Sanford School of Public Policy, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the Durham University-Assisted Community Schools Research Collective. He also served on several committees focused on university operations and inclusion commitment, including the President’s Council on Black Affairs and the Board of Trustees’ Racial Equity Action Council.
Greene co-chaired Duke’s International Student Orientation program for the past two years and has worked as a research intern at AccessLex Institute and as a data evaluation specialist at the Center for Supportive Schools. Additionally, he spent a summer with the Mississippi Teacher Corps, serving as an administrative aide and middle school math teacher in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Stureborg, a final-year doctoral candidate in computer science at Duke, was nominated by the Graduate and Professional Young Trustee Nominating Committee. He conducts research focusing on addressing subjectivity in data pipelines for natural language processing and misinformation. Currently, he works as an AI and machine learning researcher at Grammarly.
At Duke, Stureborg serves as president of the Duke Advanced-Degree Consulting Club, overseeing numerous pro-bono client engagements and managing a team of student consultants. He also holds the role of treasurer for the Graduate and Professional Student Government, managing the annual budget and contributing to policy discussions, including the doctoral stipend task force.
Stureborg has lived and studied in several countries, including Uganda, Chile, Sweden and Indonesia. His leadership and advisory roles within Duke's academic and administrative committees, such as the Advisory Committee for Investment Responsibility and the Strategic Engagement Committee for the Board of Trustees, highlight his commitment to enhancing institutional transparency and community collaboration.
Stureborg holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from Northeastern University.
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Claire Cranford is a Trinity sophomore and features managing editor for the news department.