Centennial Reception Celebrates Duke’s Workforce
NOTE: OTC’s Centennial Timeline was featured at this event. This article and video was put together for Duke Today/Working@Duke by Stephen Schramm and Travis Stanley.
Since starting her hybrid role at Duke late last year, Santannah Syme has been spending two to three days on campus each week, gradually getting to know the university.
When she heard about the Centennial Reception for staff, faculty and retirees, she knew it was a she wouldn’t want to miss.
“I haven’t been to many in-person events since I’ve been here,” Syme, Assistant to the Vice Dean for Basic Science in the Duke University School of Medicine, said during the reception hosted by Duke Human Resources on May 16. “It’s great to be able to get out and meet people from so many different departments.”
Staff, faculty and retirees – clad in everything from surgical scrubs to suits – filled Penn Pavilion for the event, enjoying beef kofta and falafel sliders, ham and brie and chicken salad sandwiches, live jazz and a chance to connect with colleagues old and new.
As part of the 100th anniversary of the transformation of Trinity College into Duke University, the reception was an opportunity to highlight the many ways Duke staff and faculty have shaped the institution’s story.
In his opening remarks, Antwan Lofton , Vice President of Duke Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer, encouraged guests to take time to “recognize this moment in our history and the ways each of you have contributed to that history.”
“Within this room, between those that have retired and our current employees, there are multiple generations of people who have worked here,” Lofton said later, in between conversations with attendees. “It’s been very rewarding to hear their stories.”
Moving around the busy room, compelling stories weren’t hard to find.
At one table near the center of the room, members of the Venue and Production Management team enjoyed time together, taking advantage of the brief lull after the heavy lifts of commencement and the American Dance Festival.
“This is a nice opportunity to take a break and see people we don’t often get to see,” said Duke University Box Office Customer Service Representative Ilana Adlee, who is in her second year with Duke.
Among the group was Duke University Box Office Assistant Manager Madi Kartcheske, who has been at Duke for eight months, and Madi’s father, Duke Arts Production Manager Paul Kartcheske, who has 16 years of experience at Duke.
Seated at a table nearby, retirees Queen McRae, who spent 30 years as a nursing educator at Duke, and her husband Robert McRae, who managed labs for the Duke University School of Medicine for 43 years, were relishing the chance to be among members of the Duke community.
“I enjoyed my time here,” said Robert McRae, a board member of the Duke University Retirees Association. “It’s always nice to come back and see how things are going.”
For Jerry Kirchner, a Clinical Trials Project Leader with the Duke Clinical Research Institute, attending the reception is part of a rolling celebration of his 30th year at Duke.
To mark three decades since he moved from Iowa to start work at Duke, Kirchner, who works remotely from his Durham home, said he’s been intentional about collecting meaningful Duke experiences this spring such as climbing to the top of Duke University Chapel, attending baseball, softball and men’s lacrosse games, and attending Thursday’s reception.
“I’m trying to really embrace Duke culture,” Kirchner said. “There’s so much you can do here.”
Lining one wall of Penn Pavilion was a traveling exhibit from the Duke Office for Translation & Commercialization highlighting the many innovations that have come from the bright minds of Duke community members during the last century.
As the reception wound down, Tracy Huber, the Building Support Services Coordinator for the Levine Science and Research Center, took a few minutes to study the exhibit’s panels.
“There’s probably some stuff on here that happened in our building,” said Huber, who has been at Duke since 2007. “We’ve had a lot of breakthroughs.”
With roughly a decade of experience working a Duke in different capacities, Academic Resource Center Senior Learning Consultant Bayley Garbutt said he appreciates the wide scope of work that gets done at Duke. But events like Thursday’s reception, which bring the different sides of Duke’s workforce together, illustrate how many people contribute to Duke’s continuing story.
“I know Duke is big, but being here gives you a view of how many people are invested in what Duke does,” Garbutt said.
Check out a video of scenes and interviews from last week’s Centennial Reception.
Send story ideas, shout-outs and photographs by writing working@duke.edu.
Follow Working@Duke on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.
More photos of attendees perusing the timeline. Credit: Lou Ward.
