U.S. Archivist David Ferriero to Address Annual Founders’ Day Ceremony

U.S. Archivist David Ferriero, the former head of Duke University Libraries, will address the school’s annual Founders’ Day ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, in Page Auditorium.

The Founders’ Day ceremony, traditionally held in Duke Chapel, is being moved because of renovation of the chapel.

In addition, University Medals will be presented to legendary Duke track coach Al Buehler and trustee emerita Paula Burger. The Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to cancer researcher Dr. Kimberly L. Blackwell, while Ed Balleisen, associate professor of history and public policy, will receive the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Founders' Day celebrates the founding of the university and provides an opportunity each year for the school to reflect on its history and heritage, and recognize major contributions by students, faculty, administrators, employees and alumni.

The ceremony will include recognition of faculty, staff and students who have won other university awards. The public is invited to attend.

Ferriero, who served as university librarian at Duke from 1996-2004, returns to campus at the nation’s 10th national archivist.  He is responsible for the preservation of government records and important historical documents and promoting public access to our nation’s documentary heritage.

Ferriero has led efforts by the archives to embrace social media and the participation of “citizen archivists.”  Several new facilities have opened under Ferriero’s administration, including the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas and the David M. Rubenstein Gallery at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

The trip will be Ferriero’s first visit to Duke since the reopening of the renovated Rubenstein Library of Special Collections, overseen by Deborah Jakubs, his successor as university librarian. The renovation is the culmination of 15 years of work of reimagining Perkins Library, creating new, modern research and classroom space and making the special collections more accessible to scholars, students and the public.

Duke awarded Ferriero the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2013.

The University Medals to be presented to Buehler and Burger are Duke's highest honor for distinguished service.

Buehler came to Duke in 1955 to coach cross country and took the helm of the track and field program in 1964.  Over six decades, Buehler coached several All-America honorees, seven Penn Relay champions and five Olympians. In addition to his coaching duties, Buehler taught a popular freshman seminar titled “History and Issues of American Sport” from his office in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Buehler served on the coaching staff for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Teams in 1972 and 1984 and served as head manager in 1988.  He was inducted into the Duke Hall of Fame in 2001 and the United States Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003. He also received a lifetime achievement award from USA Track and Field in 2012.  A popular running trail through the Duke Forest was named in Buehler’s honor in 2000. 

Burger graduated from Duke with an A.B. in political science in 1967.  She began her career in university administration in 1970 as dean of women at the Woman’s College at Duke, one of the youngest deans of women in the country.  After the men's and women's colleges merged in 1972, Burger served as assistant dean of Duke's Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.  She continued in leadership positions at Duke, serving under Provosts Thomas Langford and Phillip Griffiths as vice provost for academic services and executive vice provost.

In 1993, Burger went to Johns Hopkins, where she served as vice provost for academic affairs and international programs and then as vice provost and dean of undergraduate education before stepping down in 2010. 

Burger’s volunteer leadership at Duke has included service on the board of directors of the Duke Alumni Association, the Women’s Center and the executive committee of the Duke Annual Fund.  Her contributions were honored by the Duke University Award for Merit in 1989. 

The Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Dr. Kimberly L. Blackwell, professor of medicine, assistant professor of radiation oncology and director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Duke Cancer Institute. Blackwell received her A.B. from Duke in 1989; after medical school, she returned to Duke for her residency in medicine and a fellowship in hematology oncology.  

A leading scientist in the field of breast cancer research, Blackwell has developed a treatment that targets a protein found in an extremely aggressive form of breast cancer.  Known as HER-2-positive tumors, these tumors make up 20 to 25 percent of breast cancer cases and are resistant to treatment. 

The treatment Blackwell has developed has been dubbed a “smart bomb” because it does not attack the healthy cells but binds to an antibody and delivers chemotherapy directly to the cancer cell.  As a result, survival rates are markedly improving for HER-2 positive breast cancer, and patients are experiencing significantly fewer side effects.  “We’ve envisioned a world where cancer treatment would kill the cancer and not hurt the patient,” she said. “And this drug does that.”

In 2013, TIME magazine included Blackwell in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, naming her “one of the bright young stars in the field.”

History and public policy professor Edward J. Balleisen will receive the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award. Named vice provost for interdisciplinary studies, Balleisen has been involved in a number of innovative educational programs. As a senior fellow in the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke, he was a former director of the “Rethinking Regulation” project.  He also co-leads a Bass Connections program on regulatory governance. 

Balleisen has taught about 1,000 Duke undergraduates and mentored more than 30 doctoral students. In 2005, he was awarded the Howard D. Johnson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2015 he was presented with the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring by The Graduate School. 

Other faculty awards to be cited at Founders' Day include:

Graduate School
-- Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring: Edward J. Balleisen, Sarah Deutsch, Kerry L. Haynie and Ranjana Khanna

Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
-- Award for Excellence in Advising: Deborah Johnson and Steve Baldwin
-- Award for Excellence in Teaching Writing: Jennifer Ansley
-- David and Janet Vaughan Brooks Distinguished Teaching Award: Eric Spana
-- Dean’s Leadership Award – The Chemistry Outreach Program: Kenneth Lyle
-- Howard D. Johnson Distinguished Teaching Award: Susan Thorne
-- Richard K. Lublin Distinguished Award for Teaching Excellence: Michael Hardt
-- Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching Award: Alex Harris
-- Teaching and Technology Award: Connel Fullenkamp

Pratt School of Engineering
-- Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising: Jenny Johnson
-- Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research: Kathryn Nightingale
-- Dean’s Award for Leadership in Program and Operational Excellence: Minnie Glymph
-- Klein Family Distinguished Teaching Award: Andrew Hilton
-- Lois and John L. Imhoff Distinguished Teaching Award: Charles S. Wallace Jr.
-- Stansell Family Distinguished Research Award: Jeffrey Glass

Faculty, staff and community members also will be honored for university service awards, including:

-- Presidential Award: Tiwonda Johnson-Blount, David S. Bowersox, Sara H. Johnson, Lisa Scandale Lewis and Denise Simpson

-- Meritorious Service Award: Cathy J. Carter, Linda L. Daniel, Elizabeth A. Gustafson, Phyllis Holt, Stephen Hoosier, Christine McMillan, Calvin Morgan, Peggy Morrell, Sandra G. Pendergraph, Mark Rasmussen, Nathan Russell, Gail Sexton, Constance E. Simmons, Gordon Wang and C.T. Woods-Powell

-- Diversity Award: Scooter Freeney and Amanda Thomas

-- Teamwork Award:
Duke Annual Fund’s Alumni Giving Program: Jennifer Cameron, Matthew Cloues, Amy Crum, Stacy Davis, Margaret Dillard, Jennifer Gerber, Randy Garcia, Pam Jones, Suzanne MacKinnon, Sarah Jane Martin, Cheryl Robinson and Sharon White

Universal Influenza Vaccination Work Group: Kathy Andolsek, Juanyetta Beasley, Tammy Berry, Doug Borg, Jill Boy, Susan Budinger, Connie Clark, Helen Cuccaro, Lynne Deitch, Carol Epling, Denise Evans, Regina Ford, Michelle Frey, Jean Hanson, Barbara Hendrix, Rita Oakes, Antoinette Parker, Kuldip Patel, Judy Prewitt, Gail Shulby, Jessica Thompson Melton, Richard Walsh, Cameron Wolfe and Jason Zivica

-- Humanitarian Service Award: Brenda Brodie and Colin Miller

Others to be honored during the Founders' Day service include Angier B. Duke Scholars, Benjamin N. Duke Scholars, Karsh International Scholars, James B. Duke Graduate Fellows, Reginaldo Howard Scholars, University Scholars, Robertson Scholars, Faculty Scholars, the MasterCard Foundation Scholars, The Duke Endowment Fellows and many other undergraduate and graduate scholars. For the first time at Founders' Day, the recipients of Duke Alumni Association Awards will be recognized. These include the Beyond Duke Service and Leadership Award, the Charles A. Dukes Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service, and the Forever Duke Award.