D'Anne Duncan, PhD is UCSF’s first Assistant Dean for Learner Success in the Graduate Division and is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She has advocated for and worked closely with students to advance institutional change at UCSF since 2017. In 2020-21, Dr. Duncan conceived of, designed, and launched the first-ever Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Academic Leadership course, aimed at educating and training students on the value and implications of centering diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in education and research. Dr. Duncan’s research at UCSF transforms the student experience – with an emphasis on supporting graduate students from historically marginalized and underrepresented backgrounds – through institutional interventions founded upon personal and professional identity alignment, and principles of mentorship, community building and belonging.
Dr. Duncan earned her PhD in neuroscience from Northwestern University and pursued her postdoctoral training in visual neuroscience at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Duncan has an established history of designing and offering professional development opportunities to advance PhD education and training for biomedical scientists. Dr. Duncan draws on her training in neuroscience and expertise in academic administration to identify the intersections of biological systems and apply them in an academic administrative capacity, with a goal of creating tangible and deliberate systemic changes capable of improving the student experience at UCSF and throughout academia. She specifically utilizes the science of how to cultivate relationships with students in order to advocate for and train a new generation of leaders, and to challenge academia’s status quo. Dr. Duncan is the 2021 recipient of the ImmunoDiverse Community Award. She is nationally recognized for her work at UCSF, and has been featured in Science Careers “A Day in the Life of an Assistant Dean.”
