Richard Brodhead’s indelible imprint on Duke University is as clear and visible half a world away as it is right here in Durham.
As president from 2004 to 2017, Brodhead oversaw and supported myriad university initiatives including a globalization effort that led to the Duke-NUS Medical School, a partnership with the National University in Singapore, and the creation of Duke Kunshan University in China.
But he was just as busy at home in Durham. Along with his wife, Cindy, Brodhead championed closer ties between Duke and Durham. Duke’s investments spurred a great deal of downtown revitalization, with thousands of university employees working in renovated, leased space around the downtown core.
Duke made investments that have strengthened K-12 public education, funded several new community health clinics, and fostered neighborhood revitalization through the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership.
Under Brodhead’s leadership, undergraduate education at Duke soared as well, with new opportunities for internships, faculty-mentored research, and academic collaborations such as Bass Connections, as well as changes in housing and student life. Brodhead also launched the signature program DukeEngage, a fully funded summer service program that provides Duke undergraduates the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge in the U.S. and countries around the world.
A scholar of English literature, Brodhead has always been anchored in the humanities. He was selected, while Duke’s president, to co-chair the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, created to improve teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences. The commission issued its report, The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a vibrant, competitive, and secure nation, in June 2013. Brodhead discussed the report on the PBS NewsHour and “The Colbert Report.”
