President Vincent E. Price recognized Duke School of Medicine Executive Vice Dean J. Scott Gibson with the Kyle J. Cavanaugh Award for Leadership and Service during Tuesday’s 2025 Presidential Awards Ceremony.
Gibson is the second Duke employee to receive the award, which was created in 2022 to periodically recognize extraordinary contributions by Duke staff and faculty. The award was named in honor of former Vice President for Administration Kyle J. Cavanaugh, who retired in 2022.
Gibson, who plans to retire this year, joined Duke in 2000 as the School of Medicine’s associate dean for finance and resource planning and moved to his current position in 2008.
During his quarter century with the medical school, Gibson has directed central administrative functions in finance, human resources, research administration and facilities planning and helped lead efforts to streamline administrative processes. In addition, he played a key role in the development and implementation of the Duke Health Integrated Practice and served on the steering committee for the Duke Administrative Reform Team that successfully helped guide Duke through the Great Recession of 2009.
Gibson was also a principal member of the Research Administration Continuous Improvement initiative that led to process improvements across operational, technical and human resources functions. The initiative transformed research administration at Duke and serves as a model for other institutions.
“Scott’s extraordinary contributions epitomize leadership and service to Duke, and I am thrilled to recognize his dedicated and transformational work with this award,” Price said.
