Graduate/Professional Young Trustee finalist Dakota Douglas, Trinity ‘22 and Graduate School ‘24, hopes to help Duke’s Board of Trustees advance accessibility, community engagement and health care equity.
For Douglas, advocacy work and efforts to bridge communities aren’t a choice — they are a responsibility she is willing to take on if chosen as a Young Trustee.
To her, a Young Trustee is “someone who holds that same kind of sacred regard for the health of Duke and the progress that should accompany [the] University into its next century” as other board members, but is closer to the college experience and more connected to the needs of the student body.
A North Carolina native and two-time Duke graduate, her personal experiences with the University have deeply influenced her advocacy. Growing up in Indian Trail, North Carolina, with a brother with autism and a grandmother with congenital blindness, Douglas said she saw firsthand how unequal access to health care and accessibility create disparate outcomes.
“I just always kind of understood that when you look different, you're not going to be treated the same,” she said.
Her family’s connection to Duke reinforced this understanding. Douglas’ grandmother was once a tobacco sharecropper for the American Tobacco Company, which was owned and operated by the Duke family, as well as a patient of Duke Hospital. Carrying on her family’s legacy in the community through a role that prioritizes giving back was Douglas’ impetus for applying to the Young Trustee position.
“We've gone from an institution that employed my family as sharecroppers to one [where] the granddaughter of a living sharecropper could be a trustee,” she said. “I think for that to happen in the context of 100 years […] is really miraculous.”
This is Douglas’ second time applying for the Young Trustee position. Last year, she made it to the semi-finalist round and chose to reapply this year with a renewed focus on Duke’s community partnerships.
Now a finalist, her candidacy emphasizes the importance of ensuring that institutional policies reflect the lived experiences of those they impact.
“Governance is a mechanism by which we can use community feedback. I am very much a proponent of the saying, ‘nothing about us without us,’” Douglas said. “It's pivotal and important to have representation from the communities that you hope to exist alongside and help them grow their own goals.”
If selected, Douglas hopes to focus on strengthening Duke’s relationship with Durham, a city she says has been deeply impacted by the University’s presence, but not always equitably served by it.
She added that the University should have “a deeper, conscious reckoning of Duke's role in Durham” and should be unafraid “to say, ‘this is where we were, this is where we are now and here's what we hope to do,’ and continue to strengthen those ties.”
During her undergraduate years, Douglas was a Cardea Fellow, a resident assistant and a member of multiple cultural and advocacy organizations, including the Black Women’s Union and SALUD, a program for Latinx students in Durham Public Schools to study health inequities and pursue health-related fields. She later returned to Duke for graduate school after deferring her acceptance to Howard University College of Medicine and taking a gap year to care for her grandmother — a decision she described as instrumental in refining her policy interests.
“That really shaped my understanding of my duty to have a knowledge of how the world isn't set up fairly for everyone and be empowered to act,” she said.
While earning her master’s degree in bioethics and science policy at the Graduate School, she worked with Mothers Against Media Addiction, the Center for Humane Technology and as a research assistant with the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. In these roles, Douglas conducted research on policy messaging strategies, partisan attitudes towards artificial intelligence and care coordination networks in health care systems.
She also left a lasting impression on her colleagues.
“Dakota has the kindest heart of anyone and cares deeply for the communities she is a part of,” Reagan McRae, Graduate School ‘24, wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “… She shows up in both small and large ways for her friends, family and community, and encourages her peers to ask for help when they need it.”
Another of Douglas’ friends and peers, Liz Sparacino, Graduate School ‘24, agreed.
“Dakota is a deeply thoughtful leader who has a keen ability to advocate for people who are not at the table,” she wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “She leads with purpose and grace, making her an exceptional candidate.”
Douglas is currently a medical student at Howard, and she plans to earn her Juris Doctor after completing her Doctor of Medicine.
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“It’s an honor and a privilege to get to be at this stage and be able to share the ideas that I have and learn more about what it’s like to help the University exist as long as Duke has,” Douglas said.
Claire Cranford is a Trinity sophomore and features managing editor for the news department.