Blue Devil of the Week: Understanding Young Minds

Name: Rick Hoyle

Title: Professor in Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Director of Center for the Study of Adolescent Risk and Resilience

Years at Duke: 15

What he does: Like many members of Duke’s faculty, Hoyle’s job has many sides. He teaches graduate level courses for Psychology and Neuroscience students. He also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies for the psychology major, helping students stay on track for their degree. 

“It’s a lot of work, but our majors are good students,” Hoyle said. “They’re trying to take full advantage of the opportunities they have and make them fit within the requirements of the major.”

Through his work as director of the Center for the Study of Adolescent Risk and Resilience, he explores what shapes the decision-making skills of pre-teens. He also helps oversee the You@Duke project, which tracks the journey of around 400 Duke students, from before they arrived on campus to the end of their senior year, in an effort to understand what helped them achieve – or what stood in the way of achieving – physical and mental health.

The common thread that runs through all elements of Hoyle’s job is a genuine care and curiosity about young minds.

“It’s naïve to start studying adults without really understanding how they got to be who they are,” Hoyle said. “You met people who are struggling, and you realize that, if you really want to understand and help them, you have to go back to when they first veered off track. Then the question is, how far back is that?”

What he loves about Duke: Hoyle points to inter-disciplinary endeavors, such as the Center for the Study of Adolescent Rick and Resilience, as proof of the collaborative spirit that’s common at Duke. 

“I love being around smart curious people who like to work together,” Hoyle said. “I think that’s a uniquely Duke thing. People aren’t hiding out in their own space, doing their own thing. They’re out there interacting with each other and planning projects together.”

Memorable day at work: In 14 years at the University of Kentucky, he’d become department chair and earned tenure. But in 2003, when his wife was offered a position at Campbell University, the decision was made to move to North Carolina, where Hoyle found his current spot at Duke.

His memorable day came five years later, in 2008, when Hoyle received a call from department leaders telling him Duke would be giving him tenure.

“That was a really big day,” Hoyle said. “I had come with no assumptions. Whatever I needed to do to be supportive of my wife, I’ll do. So, I really was just gratified and pleased with Duke. It was such a happy surprise.”

Special objects in his workspace: In addition to a standard seated desk, Hoyle has a desk mounted on a stationary bike and a standing desk which, until recently, had a treadmill under it.

“I wore it out,” Hoyle said of the treadmill.

First ever job: As a teenager, Hoyle spent Saturday mornings cleaning machines in a textile mill in Valdese, a small town in the North Carolina foothills.

“It was really quite a fun job for an adolescent,” said Hoyle, who grew up in the nearby community of Drexel. “It was six to 12 on Saturday morning, so by noon you were a free man.”

Something most people don’t know about him: Hoyle earned the 2017 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, in part, for his long history of humanitarian work overseas. He’s made several trips to Haiti, including a three-week stint rebuilding facilities after the devastating 2010 earthquake. 

Hoyle’s wanderlust began after he earned his bachelor’s degree at Appalachian State University. Before enrolling in graduate school at North Carolina, he spent a year in the West African country of Togo, running a church-affiliated student center at the University of Lomé, in the country’s capital city.