Naomi Nichele Duke
Associate Professor of Pediatrics

Dr. Naomi N. Duke, MD, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor, board certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Adolescent Medicine. During her two decades of experience in clinical practice in academic and community settings, she has witnessed the persistence of health inequities across generations via intersectionality of race and ethnic identity, gender, class, and nativity. Her research interests place her at the intersection of medicine, sociology, and population health toward understanding biosocial aspects of the intergenerational transmission of health.

Current Research Interests

My research focuses on advancing knowledge and advocacy efforts around the relevance of childhood adversity and social context for later disparities in health outcomes, including morbidity and mortality related to stress physiology and its cumulative burden (allostatic load), perceptions of physical and emotional weathering, and health-related behaviors. My background in medicine, sociology, and public health uniquely positions me to inform health services delivery and research programming addressing interactions between sociocultural context and adolescent and young adult health, and the intergenerational transmission of health.

I have experience in working with large national and regional survey-based child and adult health datasets (e.g. National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health; National Health Interview Survey; National Survey of Children’s Health; Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System; Minnesota Student Survey). I am currently working to expand my experience in data construction, cultivation, and analysis using electronic health record, census-derived, and geospatial information to inform work addressing social drivers in maternal and child health and health behaviors. To this end, I am an academic affiliate with four multidisciplinary research collaborations: the Duke Center for Childhood Obesity Research (DCCOR); the Duke Children’s Health & Discovery Initiative (Duke CHDI); the Duke Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research (Duke CHOIR); and the Duke University Population Research Institute (DUPRI). In each of these roles, I work collaboratively to study social contextual origins of health and to understand population-level factors that influence disparities in health and behavioral outcomes.

I am committed to the development of health interventions representing a diversity of perspectives and strengths at individual, community, and population levels to achieve equity in access and health outcomes for adolescents and young adults.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Contact Information

  • 4020 N. Roxboro Rd,, Durham, NC 27704
  • 4020 N. Roxboro Rd,, Durham, NC 27704

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