Duke Names Three New Trustees

New Duke University trustees Jamal Edwards, Rhett Mabry and Christopher Paul.

Three new members joined the Duke University Board of Trustees on July 1, the school announced Wednesday.

The new trustees are Rhett Mabry, incoming president of The Duke Endowment; and recent Duke graduates Christopher Paul and Jamal Edwards.

As the university's governing body, the Board of Trustees is responsible for the school's educational mission and fiscal policies. There are 37 members on the board.

Mabry will fill The Duke Endowment’s observer position that was previously held by Gene Cochrane, who retired in June.

Mabry joined The Duke Endowment in 1992 as associate director of health care. In 1998, he was named director of the endowment’s child care program. In 2009, he was promoted to vice president, a role that allowed him to work with the endowment’s four program areas -- nurturing children, promoting health, educating minds and enriching spirits -- on numerous projects while he continued to direct child care.

Mabry serves on the North Carolina Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council, on the board of the Southeastern Council of Foundations and at the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.

Previously, he worked as manager at Ernst & Young, Southeast Management Consulting Group, Healthcare Finance and Planning Group, and as administrative director of Patient Care Services at HCA West Paces Ferry Hospital.

He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in health administration from Duke.

Selected by the Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC) as a young trustee, Paul will serve a three-year term, with the first year as an observer and the next two years as a voting member.

Paul was part of the inaugural Robertson Scholars class, graduating from Duke in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, a minor in Chinese language and a certificate in Documentary Studies. After completing his undergraduate degree, Paul (along with his wife, fellow Duke graduate Anna Bauer), served in the Peace Corps as an environmental education volunteer in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

In August 2010, he joined the inaugural cohort in Duke’s Program in Environmental Policy as a University Scholars Program Fellow and a James B. Duke Fellow. As a graduate student, Paul led the Society of Duke Fellows, GradParents and the Duke Global Health Institute Student Council. From 2013-16, he served on the Duke Graduate School Board of Visitors.

Paul recently completed his Ph.D. in the environmental policy program as a Duke Global Health Institute Doctoral Scholar, studying the political economy of environmental health. His field work is primarily in East Africa, where he researches climate change, social capital and development. Paul has published broadly in the scholarly literature on environmental policy.

Edwards, a Robertson Scholar who was elected to the board by undergraduate students, graduated from Duke in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in global health. He also studied journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He will serve a two-year term on the Board of Trustees, with the first year as an observer and the second year as voting member.

His interest in global health diplomacy led him to complete an internship in the United Nations joint program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in the Governance and Multilateral Affairs unit. Edwards also participated in the Thomas F. Pickering Fellowship program, where he focused on a career in public diplomacy with the U.S. Department of State.

During his time at Duke, Edwards served at several different levels, namely as a resident assistant, president of the Black Student Alliance, a member of Dukes and Duchesses (a student ambassador group), and a Duke Student Government senator in Academic Affairs. He also partnered with MTV to produce the short film, "See Me in My Black Skin,” that tackles topics of race and privilege on college campuses.

Edwards will attend Stanford University in the fall to pursue a master’s degree in international policy studies.