| Meet Your Administrators |
Recruiting the most diverse classes in Duke Medical School's history.
Besides her medical school duties, Dr. Armstrong is a practicing pediatric cardiologist; directs the pediatric cardiology fellowship program; is medical director of Duke’s Raleigh Multi-Specialty Pediatric Clinic (and sees patients); is a Duke undergraduate pre-major advisor and dormitory faculty-in-residence; serves as church organist, youth group leader, and active community volunteer; and spends lots of time driving her two sons around to their activities (her license plate reads KIDSCAR).
"Duke has taken an aggressive posture in developing talented and diverse medical school classes."There is no more important job than mentoring. I know that from its impact on my own career. In my Duke residency I had a very fortunate encounter with Dr. Madison Spach, one of the world’s premier pediatric cardiologists, who convinced me that I had a talent for the field and that if I chose it as a career I could really run with it. He encouraged me to go beyond what I thought I could do. Now that carries over with my students and fellows. Even though it’s not good for “productivity,” I let the students spend as much time as they need with the patients and with me. You never know which student it will have a life-changing impact on. I just think part of your responsibility for having had good opportunities yourself is to give something back.
I’d been involved with medical school admissions for a while as a faculty recruiter. I thought it would give me a chance to continue working to address some of the issues the medical school had identified as priorities, such as an increasing number of physician-scientist candidates, women, and minorities. In addition, there seemed to be stereotypes about Duke and the South in general, and I wanted to help get the word out that Duke is a very supportive place where women and minorities have enjoyed tremendous success. As a director of admissions who is a clinician-scientist and belongs to both targeted groups—female and minority—I think I can help reassure students and advisors that Duke has taken an aggressive posture in developing talented and diverse medical school classes.
My goals are to attract the most academically talented, well-rounded students to medicine. That means finding people who not only make high grades and score well on standardized tests, but also people who have taken the time to venture outside their own comfort zones to see sides of life very different than what they’re used to. We’re looking for people with a strong sense of humanism and service to others; people who are willing to be on the cutting edge of research, health policy, and clinical care.
Students sometimes ask me if there’s one word I can use to describe Duke. Well, one of the favorite words at many of the other top-tier schools is tradition. At Duke, it’s re-engineering. We have figured out that greatness is based on the ability to predict change, and to creatively address the challenges it will bring. Duke has done that over and over and over again—in our curriculum, in our leadership in clinical research, in the development of our health system. And because of that, whether you’re in class or on the wards or in the labs, you cannot come to this place and not feel energized. There’s an energy that tells people to think things that haven’t been thought before.
It’s the days I get to call students with an acceptance and hear them scream with joy. That, and meeting all the students and having an opportunity to teach them. It’s so reassuring to me that there continue to be such remarkable people entering medicine—people who are not only bright but have an extraordinary sense of humanism.
DUKE-NUS
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
DUKE UNIVERSITY
DHTS STRATEGIC WEB SERVICES