How 11 Duke Employees Plan to Get 1% Better in 2026

AI as a Tool

Alma Chavez, Project Leader, Duke Clinical Research Institute

Alma Chavez clung to her flip phone for years before her two oldest children finally persuaded her to switch to a smartphone. So, it was a leap for Chavez to join DCRI’s “AI Champions Workgroup” in 2025.

After a few monthly meetings, she said she’s learning to “appreciate AI and not fear or avoid it.”

This year, she hopes to use AI to take notes, sift through emails, provide objective feedback and summarize information and correspondence.

“AI is a tool, and like a chisel, the sculpture that results is guided by the artist’s ability and vision to use that tool to produce the final product,” she said.

Keep Learning

Samara Cato, Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialist, Patient Revenue Management Organization

Samara Cato arrived at Duke in 2012 as a clinical nurse fresh out of the Watts School of Nursing in Durham. Surrounded by new colleagues navigating their own professional development pathways, she was inspired to keep learning.

“It’s ingrained in the nursing profession,” Cato said. “You want to continue to grow, continue to develop and be an asset and an advocate for the profession.”

Using Duke’s Employee Tuition Assistance Program Cato earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017, a master’s degree in 2025 from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She is now pursuing a Health Informatics Certificate from the Duke University School of Nursing with help from the RN Tuition Assistance Program.

Balance Between Work and Life

David Mills, Fire & Life Safety Specialist, Occupational and Environmental Safety Office

Before coming to Duke more than a year ago, David Mills had high-stress obligations working in firefighting and government emergency management. His role at Duke allows more work-life balance and time with his wife and two children.

He’s also been focusing on mental well-being by making incremental improvements with encouragement from a Duke Personal Assistance Service (PAS) counselor.

“I set the bar too high on myself to feel like work needed to get 90% of what I was giving and my family got 10%,” he said. “I’m at a point now where I’ve realized that my kids only have one father and my wife only has one husband.”

Get Microsoft Teams-Savvy

Felice McNair, Compliance Director, Duke University Affiliated Physicians

Around three years ago, Felice McNair’s five-person team began heavily using Microsoft Teams. While it’s been useful for meetings and sharing documents, McNair is still looking to do more.

“I haven’t tapped the potential of what I can do with Teams, but I’m getting there,” said McNair, who has used online videos to learn about the tool.

In 2026, she’d  like to use Teams for building a separate channel for Duke Health colleagues to ask her team compliance questions as well as find ways to better organize shared documents and make use of the whiteboard feature.

Be Fully Present

Maria LaMonaca Wisdom, Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement

Maria LaMonaca Wisdom provides coaching and workshops helping Duke faculty flourish as researchers, educators, mentors and leaders. A concern she often hears, whether it’s finishing writing a book or starting a new morning routine, is how daunting that first step can feel.

“Even saying ‘1% every day’ can be a little overwhelming,” Wisdom said. “What about 1% better most days?”

Wisdom suggests showing up and being fully present.

“Giving someone 20 minutes of your undivided attention, is one of the most radical and powerful things you can do right now,” Wisdom said.

Build a Strategy for the Next Day

Wes Tatum, Operations Manager, Teaching Assignment Management System

Heading into 2026, Wes Tatum began ending work days by spending 15 minutes defining the next day’s priorities and small goals to accomplish. By building a strategy for the next day, Tatum knocks out key tasks while handling curveballs. 

For Tatum, whose team builds and refines workload management software for schools inside and outside of Duke, embracing small changes and habits is an approachable-yet-powerful way to boost effectiveness and efficiency.

“I like the ‘1% better every day’ challenge as a conceptual part of an ideology rooted in self-improvement, self-reflection, and the power of successfully executing large and well-organized visions in small incremental parts,” Tatum said.

Investing in Herself

Margaret Bittle, Housekeeper Specialist, Duke Housing & Residential Life

For much of her 18 years at Duke, Margaret Bittle has put her time toward keeping the residence halls of Few Quad pristine. This year, while navigating the Foundational Skills Program, she will also be mixing in classroom learning sessions and lunch meetings with mentors.

Duke Learning & Organization Development’s Foundational Skills Program is a 10-month experience for facilities and service staff in non-administrative roles. Through classroom instruction, independent work and mentoring, participants learn about essential digital tools along with time management, customer service and business writing.

“I’m just looking for ways to better myself,” said Bittle. “When these kinds of opportunities are offered to you, you should give them a try.”

Try New Productivity Hacks

Kristen Gerondelis, Project Planner, Duke Office of Research Initiatives

Often supporting the programmatic needs of Duke’s Amboseli Baboon Research Project, palliative care research studies and humanities seminars, Kristen Gerondelis shifts gears often.

A longtime fan of Duke Learning & Organization Development’s skill-building opportunities  – she’s taken courses and completed the Training Certificate of Excellence program –  Gerondelis has discovered productivity habits such as slotting complex work in the morning when she’s sharpest and using Microsoft Planner to map out daily tasks.

For 2026, Gerondelis hopes to keep finding ways to make her diverse work days more productive.

“I’m always open-minded to new ideas that can lead to efficiency,” Gerondelis said.

Understand Context and Perspective

Jonathan Posner, J.P. Gibbons Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry

As a 2025-2026 Provost Faculty Fellow, Jonathan Posner consults with Duke experts, industry leaders and peer institutions for a project that explores opportunities to enhance Duke’s research funding resilience.

Seeing new perspectives reminded Posner of wisdom Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Executive-in-Residence at Duke, shared during a talk.

“Keep in mind not only what your boss has in mind, but what your boss’s boss has in mind,” he said. “Having exposure to things at the provost level is a helpful way to see the pressure not only that my boss faces, my department chair, but her boss, the Dean of the School of Medicine. It gives me much better perspective.”

Take a Walk

Tricia McGinn, Clinical Documentation Integrity Manager, PRMO

When Tricia McGinn began working fully remotely in 2023, the loss of a morning and evening commute left her in need of a mental buffer between work and home. She began walking 1 mile before and after work for a 15 to 20-minute slice of transition each time.

“Aside from the miles and the time outdoors that I enjoy, this routine provides a natural transition between my home life and my work life so that I can be fully present in both,” McGinn said.

With a little over 14 minutes representing 1% of a 24-hour day, she sees her twice daily walks as 2% improvement each day.

Become a Better Listener

Brigid Scullin, Nurse Practitioner, Duke Brain Tumor Clinic

For Brigid Scullin, a song lyric from the Broadway musical “Hamilton” is the inspiration for her 2026 goal for improvement: “Talk less. Smile more.”

“There is good that can come from quiet and listening,” Scullin said.

Working with brain cancer patients, Scullin has learned that listening often the best care she can provide.

“Sometimes patients need more to be heard, not told,” she said. “I do not have understanding of their journey and challenges, nor can I take it away from them.

“But I can be fully present, especially in the quiet.”