Duke Flag Lowered: Norman Anderson, Psychiatry Professor Emeritus, Dies at Age 68

Norman Anderson, PhD, former tenured associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 68 on Friday, March 1, while recovering from unanticipated complications related to knee surgeries.

Dr. Anderson first came to Duke as a postdoctoral research fellow and served as an assistant medical research professor for a brief stint in 1986. He returned to Duke in 1991, joining the faculty as an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with tenure until 1999.

He received his bachelor's degree from North Carolina Central University and his PhD in clinical psychology from UNC Greensboro.

Dr. Anderson had a wide-ranging career as a national leader, first as a scientist and tenured professor studying health equity issues and mind/body health, and later as an executive in government, non-profit, and higher education contexts. At Duke, he was among the first scientists to study and write about the role of stress in the development of hypertension in African Americans.

During his early years at Duke, Dr. Anderson was lead author on six papers that reported racial influences on cardiovascular responses to a wide range of behavioral (mental arithmetic) and physical (cold face stimulus) stressors. The findings reported in these papers laid a scientific foundation that eventually led Dr. Anderson and colleagues to co-develop one of the first biopsychosocial models of racism as a stressor for African Americans, which was published in 1999 and was awarded the 2023 Scientific Impact Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. He continued to make contributions in collaboration with others to understanding the potential connection between racism, discrimination, and health throughout his career.

Dr. Anderson left Duke to become an associate director of the National Institutes of Health and was the first director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Following his tenure at NIH, and after serving for a short time as a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Anderson became the first African American chief executive officer and executive vice president of the American Psychological Association, a position he held for 13 years. He later returned to academia as assistant vice president for research and academic affairs and professor of social work at Florida State University.

Dr. Anderson received several significant awards from scientific societies and universities, including membership in the prestigious National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Later in life, Dr. Anderson pursued his longstanding interests in contemplative practices and spirituality. After over 40 years of personal meditation practices, he began offering workshops and retreats in mindfulness meditation.

Throughout his life, Dr. Anderson has been not only a scientific colleague of the highest quality, but also, to many, a friend whose great sense of humor made him very enjoyable company. He will be deeply missed by those who have benefited from his company through the years.

Read more in Dr. Anderson’s obituary.