Sherilynn Black is the associate vice provost for faculty advancement, providing leadership in many areas of faculty advancement including support for pre-tenure and midcareer faculty, professional development for nontenure system faculty, and mentoring. She also leads initiatives to increase diversity among the faculty ranks. Dr. Black is an assistant professor of the practice of medical education and engages in social neuroscience research on the effectiveness of interventions to promote diversity and equity in academia. She has expertise in creating interventions to increase representation and equity among faculty and students across disciplines, and leads work nationally to catalyze systemic change in academia.

Dr. Black previously served as the founding director of the Office of Biomedical Graduate Diversity for the Duke University School of Medicine and was also a principal investigator of the NIH-IMSD funded Duke Biosciences Collaborative for Research Engagement (BioCoRE) Program. She holds several national appointments relating to faculty development and advancement with the NIH, HHMI, AAMC, The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and the Society for Neuroscience. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (Working Group on Diversity) and has won a number of distinctions, including the Samuel Debois Cook Society Award, the Deans Award for Inclusive Excellence in Graduate Education, and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award. She was named one of Cell‘s ‘Most Inspiring Black Scientists in America’. Dr. Black earned her B.S. in psychology and biology with highest honors at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar. She earned her Ph.D. in neurobiology at Duke University and completed additional studies in educational statistics and intervention assessment in the School of Education at UNC–Chapel Hill.

Administrative Assistant: Jan Carico
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Shana Lassiter serves as assistant vice provost in the Office for Faculty Advancement (OFA), leading the planning, delivery and assessment of OFA’s robust suite of initiatives.

Dr. Lassiter has enjoyed a multifaceted career in higher education administration, including roles in both public and private universities, driven by a commitment to fostering vibrant, inclusive environments in the academy. She first joined the Duke community as assistant dean for academic and student affairs at the Sanford School of Public Policy. Previously, she was assistant provost in Columbia University’s faculty advancement office, providing stewardship and programmatic support for the university’s faculty diversity and inclusion portfolio. Dr. Lassiter has also served in leadership and advisory roles in health professions and STEM education at the City University of New York and Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine, with a keen focus on supporting students from historically underrepresented groups.

A native New Yorker, Dr. Lassiter earned her Ed.D. in health education from Columbia University’s Teachers College; M.A. in clinical and community psychology from Georgia State University; and B.S. in psychobiology from Binghamton University (State University of New York).

Administrative Assistant: Jan Carico
Pronouns: she/her/hers

As an associate certified coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Maria Wisdom is committed to helping Duke faculty flourish as researchers, educators, mentors and leaders. She offers semester-long 1:1 and group coaching programs for both early and midcareer faculty, from all disciplines and all schools at Duke. She also serves as a resource for faculty and department leaders on issues related to mentoring, especially the mentorship of doctoral students and early-career researchers.

In addition to her faculty coaching programs, Dr. Wisdom directs the university-wide Peer Mentoring Program for First-Year Ph.D. Students and the Ph.D. Transitions Group Coaching Program (for Ph.D. students beyond the first semester).

Dr. Wisdom holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Indiana University. She was an assistant/associate professor of English at Columbia College in South Carolina for over a decade, before stepping into the role of executive director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. A former scholar of Victorian literature, Dr. Wisdom now writes about mentorship, coaching and faculty life. Her reflections on these topics show up occasionally in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Currently, she is also writing a book, “What the Best Mentors Do: A Guide for the Academy and Beyond,” forthcoming from Princeton University Press.

Focus Areas: Faculty Coaching, Mentoring
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Maggie Elliott is a senior program coordinator in the Office for Faculty Advancement. She assists in the direct planning, coordination, budgeting and execution of a variety of programmatic activities and communications. Additionally, she acts as a liaison with internal and external constituents across the institution to further faculty and leadership development activities. She is passionate about how the values of diversity, equity and inclusion interact with social structures in both the workplace and overall community.

Prior to joining the Office for Faculty Advancement, Maggie worked for the Office of Research aiding in the development and implementation of office communication, support for program activities, tracking of event and office expenses, maintenance of program budgets and administrative assistance to leadership.

She received her B.A. in 2009 for history and political science at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Maggie’s hobbies include cooking, watching anime and hiking.

Focus Areas: Newsletter, Duke COMPASS Toolkit, Website, Faculty Advancement and Success (FAS) Workshop Series, Leading an Academic Unit at Duke (LAUD) Workshop Series, New Faculty Orientation, Newly Tenured Faculty Celebration and Leadership Retreat
Pronouns: she/her/hers