Thinking back through the years since I graduated from Duke, I am struck by the variety of roles I have played in my career: I have saved and lost lives; stopped or failed to stop an innocent person from being incarcerated; mothered at least 25 children; been an addict and a person recovering from addiction, a murderer and someone investigating a murder … I’ve even stopped a ship in outer space from being destroyed by aliens!
I have had the good fortune to explore all of this (without any qualifications beyond my imagination as an actual doctor/lawyer/admiral/scientist … or murderer) through a career the seeds of which were born and fostered at Duke. And for that, I am forever grateful.
Studying the complex, sometimes hilarious, oftentimes heartbreaking nature of the relationship between people at work and at home is what I do for a living. But beyond career, I have found that life itself is about relationship. And even all these decades later, my Duke relationships grace my life.
Duke is present through the lasting friendships I made there when I was a student discovering the joyful camaraderie of the theater. And it entered my life in a delightfully new and unexpected way after years of work as an actor brought me to a role on the television series “Star Trek: Discovery” and into a wonderful friendship with Duke professor Mohamed Noor, now executive vice provost, who is a fan of the franchise. Duke is the gift that just keeps giving.