‘Opportunity for Duke to lead’: Meet Graduate/Professional Young Trustee finalist Keanu Valibia

Graduate/Professional Young Trustee finalist Keanu Valibia hopes to draw upon his leadership skills and experiences with campus student government to reinstill trust in universities and defend Duke amid political attacks on higher education.

Valibia is a graduate student in his final year pursuing a dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Environmental Management in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Nicholas School of the Environment, respectively. He hails from Merced, California, and earned a bachelor's degree in business information systems at the University of California, Riverside prior to coming to Duke.

After graduation, Valibia worked as a consultant at Deloitte. He later left the consulting firm to work on disaster relief for the Filipino diaspora, a role that drove him to explore sustainability and mitigative measures for disaster relief at Duke.

Valibia’s ultimate goal is to defend the “sanctity of higher education.” If selected as a Young Trustee, he intends to foster collaboration with leaders from other universities to combat ongoing restrictions on political action and diversity, equity and inclusion for institutions across the country. 

“This isn't unique to Duke University. This is something that is happening to other higher institutions,” Valibia said. “I think there's a lot of room and opportunity for Duke to lead in responding to crises like this.”

Within the University, Valibia has served as president of the Graduate and Professional Student Government for the past two years. In line with the sustainability focus close to his heart, one of Valibia’s proudest accomplishments as president was his campaign to ensure low waste at basketball games, including by installing compost bins during the graduate student campout for basketball season tickets.

Elected in 2022, Valibia came into the position with a clear vision for reinvigorating the organization, which lost influence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sara Stevens, assistant director of graduate and professional school engagement, observed Valibia’s work in GPSG. She described witnessing Valibia’s “doe-eyed vision” in her first discussions with him and expressed her pleasure at watching it come to life.

“I see GPSG in The Chronicle. I see it in Duke Today … I see him making statements on behalf of the community in a very thoughtful way. I see him intentionally pulling in admin to talk to grad/professional students about what is going on in the University,” Stevens said. “… I think that is really impactful, because it legitimizes the organization.”

“He has shown that he is invested in learning about Duke and asking questions to make Duke a better place,” she said. “He has demonstrated [that] he understands how administration works, how Duke is in the larger scheme of higher ed, and I think he understands the complexities and the challenges that Duke is up against.”

Gabriel Kennedy, a doctoral student and Valibia’s current GPSG director of external advocacy, described Valibia’s commitment to devote himself to the community around him — so much so that “even when he really doesn't have time, he will make it.”

To Kennedy, the role of a Young Trustee is one that “builds up the voice of the younger Duke community.” In his opinion, Valibia has already filled that position for hundreds of graduate students.

“I don't think there's anything [more] to say in terms of why I think he'd be a good fit because that's what he's been doing great,” Kennedy said. “He's got those skills. He knows the people, he knows the school.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said that Kennedy was the vice president of GPSG. This article was updated Monday evening to reflect that Kennedy is the director of external advocacy. The Chronicle regrets the error.

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