I arrived in Durham in the fall of 1969 ready to expand my universe, and 55 years later, I’m still learning. At every stage, my personal and professional lives have been enriched by the local, national and global reach of the university and the sense that at Duke we’re part of an inspirational team of dedicated, hard-working people. The deep connection of concepts and theories with the fundamental humanity of delivering health care with teams of people driven by the mission of improving health has been a constant source of support and inspiration. The forward-looking leadership and the spirit of the faculty, students and staff have given it the ability to be a leader in dealing with the important societal and health issues of our time.
Along the way, there have been many obstacles, but I always felt that if I had the right ideas and strategy, the university was a base from which I could succeed in having an impact on an important health problem. This confidence in the value of teamwork sustained me through two stints as FDA commissioner, an amazing chance to serve and to learn continuously.
As I enter what might be called an “overtime period” in my life at age 73, the university has allowed me to “unretire” for the second time. I hope to be able to help improve our information ecosystem, which is currently overwhelmed by pervasive misinformation. There is also a great opportunity now to directly address the cardio-metabolic crisis that gives us the shortest life expectancy of any high-income country. I hope Durham and North Carolina will show others how to combine efforts to turn this around. I am a lucky man to still have ideas in this phase of life and to work in an institution with so much freedom to create new approaches. But I also know that success will not come from my individual effort but from the collective effort of so many inspirational colleagues.