Meet Duke Stars Celebrating Career Service Milestones in 2024
Some staff and faculty celebrating 15 to 45+ years of service reflect on why Duke is where they’ve chosen to stay
Each year, Duke Human Resources recognizes staff and faculty who have reached career service milestones. Recognized as “Duke Stars,” this year’s group features 5,300 Duke University and Health System employees who mark service anniversaries of five to 55 years, including Duke Regional Hospital Health Unit Coordinator Brenda Bridges and Duke Human Vaccine Institute Grants & Contracts Administrator Brenda Adams, both of whom are celebrating 55 years.
Working@Duke caught up with some staff and faculty to hear what they’ve valued about their time at Duke.
Adrienne Baroff
Associate Director of Accreditation and Faculty Personnel Services
Fuqua School of Business
15 Years
As a teenager in the 1980s, Adrienne Baroff was drawn to Duke by its beautiful campus and community of bright, ambitious minds. After earning a bachelor’s in chemistry from Duke in 1987, Baroff embarked on a career in pharmaceuticals and eventually started a family.
About 15 years ago, Baroff, a mother of three, needed a more stable position with strong benefits and a chance to grow.
Once again, she found her way back to Duke.
Since then, Baroff, 58, has served as a project manager with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and, since 2013, has helped Fuqua School of Business faculty work through compliance and accreditation processes.
Her salary and benefits have helped her send her three children to college and enjoy the security of robust medical coverage. And with a job that still presents her with new and interesting projects to tackle, she sees Duke as a place to learn.
“I have had so many opportunities since coming here,” Baroff said. “I get to work with a great team. I get to interact with the Provost’s office and different accrediting bodies. I get to do a lot. I think that’s why I really like working here.”
Krishna Udayakumar
Director
Duke Global Health Innovation Center
20 Years
Krishna Udayakumar said that when he arrived at Duke as a medical student in 1999, he didn’t expect to stay longer than four years. Now the Founding Director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, Udayakumar has found Duke too rich in possibilities and wisdom to leave.
“To me, Duke is a place that’s special, and a little different from others in that the mentorship and the opportunities have really been meaningful,” Udayakumar said.
As a resident, Udayakumar worked with Robert Califf, founder of the Duke Clinical Research Institute and current head of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Later, as his curiosity led him to translational medicine and global health, Udayakumar gained valuable insights from former Duke Vice Chancellor for Corporate Development Robert Taber, former head of the Duke Global Health Institute Michael Merson and former Duke University Health System President Victor Dzau.
Now with the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, Udayakumar, 46, helps advance medical innovations around the globe.
“I’ve been fortunate to try new things and have leaders create opportunities for growth along the way,” Udayakumar said. “What I’m doing now, I would have never imagined doing 10, 20 years ago.”
Henry Steves
25 Years
Interventional Technologist, Radiology
Duke Regional Hospital
In 1999, Henry and Susan Steves moved to North Carolina with their two young daughters, Becca and Courtney. The couple had worked in hospitals in Niagara Falls, New York, but decided to move south in search of better opportunities.
Henry found his when he landed a spot as an interventional technologist at Duke Regional Hospital.
“I had limited experience, but the manager liked my attitude and said ‘Let’s give him a try’ and hired me,” Henry said.
With Henry serving a vital support role for small-but-precise surgical procedures for a quarter-century, the manager’s decision paid off. And with the family creating deep Duke roots, the gamble on moving to North Carolina has been a success, too.
In 2000, Susan started working at Duke University Hospital as a Clinical Dietician. Around six years ago, their daughter Courtney began working at Duke University Hospital as a clinical nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. And three years ago, their other daughter Becca began working as a Dietetic Technician at Duke University Hospital.
“I enjoy the work and have had great managers and coworkers,” Henry said. “Every day is a learning opportunity here. Saving lives and teaching new techs and students helps make this truly satisfying work.”
Roosevelt Hall Jr.
35 years
Senior General Maintenance Mechanic
Duke Facilities Management
You could say Duke runs in Roosevelt Hall Jr.’s family.
His father, Roosevelt Sr., worked at Duke for more than two decades in housekeeping. Nine of Hall Jr.’s 10 siblings worked here at some point, too.
When Roosevelt Hall Jr. returned from active service with the U.S. Navy, the first place he applied was the same place where he could carpool to work with his father.
With interruptions for being recalled for active duty three times and spending a few years pursuing a calling in ministry, Hall now is celebrating 35 years at Duke, a milestone that even his father didn’t reach.
Hall has moved from housekeeping to maintenance, where he’s now a Senior General Maintenance Mechanic with Duke Facilities Management, a role he sees as the perfect fit for his curious mind.
“I love taking stuff apart and fixing it,” he said. “I learn something new every day – that's what I love to do.”
Along the way, Duke helped him attend college, learn leadership skills and strive to complete his training to become a minister.
“Why go somewhere else when whatever I wanted to do, I could have done here at Duke?” Hall said.
Tina Leiter
35 years
Director of Facilities & Operations
Duke University School of Nursing
Not long after Tina Leiter started at the Duke University School of Nursing, her supervisor reminded her how she answered the interview question of where she envisioned herself in five years.
Leiter had asserted, “I want your position.”
“How would you like to start now?” her boss asked.
That’s how Leiter became the School of Nursing’s Director of Facilities and Operations in 2012. It was, she said, the perfect position for her “go-getter” personality and organizational skills to direct and complete projects.
“To me, it's just so rewarding to see a project finish,” Leiter said.
Leiter started her Duke career 35 years ago in the Department of Psychiatry after moving to North Carolina from New York. She’s worked in the Physician Assistant Program and the Center for Living where a co-worker told her, “You’re like a pit bull. You grab something, and you hold onto it until you’re done with it.”
That’s why she loves her current position and managing projects.
“I love my job, I love doing different projects,” she said. “It's just never boring. And I don't feel like I'm ever stagnant.”
Richard Moon
45 years
Professor of Anesthesiology, Professor of Medicine
Departments of Anesthesiology and Medicine
When deciding where to apply for his pulmonary critical care medicine fellowship, Duke was at the top of Richard Moon’s list because of its active research program in hyperbaric physiology, and his interest in the effects of extreme environments on lung function.
Later, when pursuing an anesthesiology residency, Duke again was at the top of the list as a place excelling in the topic that interested him most.
In 45 years at Duke, Moon, a Professor of Anesthesiology and Medicine, has studied some of the most extreme environments. At Mount Everest base camp, he observed people with low oxygen levels for weeks at a time. And he has seen what happens to divers who descend 2,000 feet below sea level.
Moon has morphed from mentee to mentor, now regularly working with students who inspire him to pursue new research. He has worked with numerous students on topics such as respiratory depression related to narcotic use after surgery, altitude physiology and the effects of diving on the lungs.
“Having enthusiastic medical students – and residents for that matter – has been an absolute joy,” Moon said.
The people, Moon said, are the reason he’s never left Duke.
“The people I have worked with have been absolutely fabulous,” he said. “That's the reason I keep coming to work – the great people.”
Linda O’Neal
45 years
Inpatient Pharmacy
Duke Raleigh Hospital
Linda O’Neal was looking for work as a pharmacy technician in 1979 when she applied at the hospital near where she lived. She walked in, filled out an application, interviewed – and was hired the same day.
O’Neal, 67, still works at Duke Raleigh Hospital for standout reasons: Her high-quality supervisors and consistently supportive co-workers.
“We're like a family here,” O’Neal said, “and that means a lot to me.”
On her team, co-workers ask how parents or siblings are doing. They know the names of colleagues’ children. And they don’t just talk about superficial topics.
“When you can get up and work around people you know genuinely care about you, that makes life so much easier,” O’Neal said. “It’s not even like going to work.”
O’Neal felt that support after being diagnosed with cancer in 2022 when co-workers supported her like family.
“I went through a lot in those two years, I’m still going through it, and they’re still supportive,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal’s job is to help patients, but through her time at Duke, the people she’s known have helped her become whole.
“In the process of helping patients get better, you heal yourself,” O’Neal said.
Hear the voices of this year's Duke Stars as they discuss what's led to them making Duke with home.
What’s your Duke career story? Tell us through our story idea form or write working@duke.edu.
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