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Five Named Provost Faculty Fellows

Five members of the Duke faculty have been named Provost Faculty Fellows for the 2026-27 academic year.

The selective program aims to introduce Duke faculty members to key leadership roles and responsibilities and areas of strategic focus of the university. Fellows were nominated by their deans and submitted proposals for projects connected to their interests.

“I’m very pleased that these talented faculty members have embraced this opportunity for academic leadership development,” Provost Alec D. Gallimore said. “I was impressed by their compelling project proposals, and I look forward to working with them this year to see the outcomes.”

In addition to working on their projects in the coming year, the fellows will have the opportunity to meet and shadow key members of the Provost’s Office leadership team, attend Provost’s Cabinet meetings, meet other campus leaders, and take part in leadership training.

The five faculty members were selected from across the university and will undertake projects that explore a wide range of issues in higher education. Meet the new fellows below.

Felipe De Brigard is a professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology and Neuroscience and also holds an appointment in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. He is principal investigator of the Imagination and Modal Cognition (IMC) Laboratory within the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. His research focuses on the nature of memory and its relations to other cognitive faculties, such as perception, imagination, attention and consciousness, and he is also interested in the foundations of neuroscience and moral psychology. Since 2021, De Brigard has been the director of Duke's Memory and Forgiveness project, which takes place in both the U.S. and Colombia. His latest book is Memory and Remembering (Cambridge University Press).

De Brigard’s fellowship project will examine the feasibility of creating a master’s degree program in cognitive science at Duke.

Jennie De Gagne is a clinical professor of nursing and director of the Nursing Education Specialty in the Duke University School of Nursing. Her scholarship focuses on cybercivility, cyberethics, and the responsible integration of artificial intelligence in health professions education. Her work examines how emerging technologies shape teaching, learning, professional identity formation, and ethical practice in higher education and clinical training environments. She has delivered national and international presentations on AI, digital professionalism, faculty development, and technology-enhanced learning, and is a fellow of both the National League for Nursing Academy of Nursing Education and the American Academy of Nursing.

De Gagne’s project will focus on advancing ethically responsible AI practices in higher education through faculty development, governance, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Eric Green is an associate professor of the practice of global health and director of undergraduate studies at the Duke Global Health Institute. He is a quantitative scientist, educator, and applied methodologist whose work focuses on how rigorous statistical thinking can inform real-world decisions in health and medicine. He teaches and advises on causal inference, study design, and real-world evidence. In addition to his academic work, he has experience as a startup co-founder and chief science officer in digital health. His work sits at the intersection of academia, technology, and applied health research, with a particular emphasis on methodological rigor, transparency, and making complex analytical ideas accessible and usable in practice.

Green’s project will explore approaches to active learning, collaboration, and AI-supported feedback in remote graduate education.

Polly Ha is an associate professor in the Duke Divinity School and the Department of History in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. She also serves as the director of Duke’s Transformative Ideas program. Her work focuses on the history of ideas and institutions and the social impact of innovation in the Renaissance, the Reformation, and in subsequent revolutionary periods. The author or editor of five volumes, her forthcoming book, The Future of Freedom (Yale University Press), engages with contemporary threats to liberty through historic debates over independence. She has been a core member of global research teams on freedom, religion, and dissent, and teaches interdisciplinary humanities courses at Duke, including “The Good Life,” “Devil’s Advocate,” “Free to Think,” and “English Reformation.”

Ha’s project will investigate ways to connect the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging with other Duke programs that aim to reinvigorate thought and debate about “the big questions” among students and faculty.

Kate McDaniel is an associate professor and director of educational initiatives in the Department of Neurosurgery. McDaniel’s research focuses on medical education, learner assessment and evaluation, faculty development, coaching and mentorship, and advancing culture, wellness, and inclusion. She was appointed the director of the Duke School of Medicine’s Academy of Health Professions Education and Academic Development (AHEAD) in January 2026. McDaniel has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences. Her accolades include being named a Fellow and Distinguished Member of Duke AHEAD, as well as receiving the Resident Research Advocate Award from the Department of Neurosurgery.

Through her project, McDaniel aims to develop a foundational AI curriculum for health professions educators, implement the curriculum through AHEAD, and evaluate the feasibility and impact of the curriculum.