The faculty of the Sanford School of Public Policy lead or collaborate with a wide variety of on-campus interdisciplinary research centers that are exploring vital policy questions and bringing provocative and timely speakers to campus. These research hubs can offer students opportunities to work with faculty on ground-breaking research, and to engage with leaders in many fields.
Listed below are institutes, centers and programs housed at the Sanford School, as well as other Duke centers in which public policy faculty members are active. Those led by Sanford School core or secondary faculty members include the faculty director’s name.
Children & Families
Duke Center for Child and Family Policy
Interim Director: Seth Sanders
Associate Directors: Liz Ananat, Leslie Babinski, Beth Gifford, Rick Hoyle
The James B. Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy
Ethics and Leadership
The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity
Director: William “Sandy” Darity
DukeEngage
Executive Director: Eric Mlyn
Hart Leadership Program
Director: Gunther Peck
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A Nurse Home-Visiting Program
Jenny Jensen, nurse training dissemination specialist with Family Connects International, visits with a Durham parent and her child.
The Duke Center for Child & Family Policy launched the nurse home visiting program as Durham Connects in 2008 as part of research into ways to prevent child maltreatment. The model is now being implemented across the country as Family Connects. Evidence from an ongoing randomized controlled trial shows that the model delivers a significant reduction in emergency room visits and an estimated 3-to-1 return on investment.
Learn more about the research.
Learn more about the Durham Connects organization on their website.
Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center for Ethics, Public Policy, and the Professions
Director: Joel Fleishman
Environment
Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
Director: Timothy Profeta
Food
World Food Policy Center
Director: Kelly Brownell
Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research (BECR Center)
Director: Peter Ubel
Health
Center for Health Policy & Inequalities Research
Director: Kathryn Whetten
Duke Global Health Institute
Associate Director: Gavin Yamey
Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy
Director: Mark McClellan
Expert: Don Taylor
International
Duke Center for International Development
Interim Director: Corinne M. Krupp
Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Center
Managing Director: Susan Carroll
Duke University Population Research Institute
Associate Director: M. Giovanni Merli
Law
Center for Law, Economics and Public Policy
Director: Matthew Adler
Media
DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy
Director: Bill Adair
Duke Reporters' Lab
Director: Bill Adair
National Security/ Foreign Policy
Counterterrorism and Public Policy Fellows Program
Director: Tim Nichols
Duke Program on American Grand Strategy
Director: Peter Feaver
Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security
Director: David Schanzer
Triangle Institute for Security Studies
Director: Peter Feaver
Politics
POLIS: The Center for Political Leadership, Innovation and Service
Director: Frederick "Fritz" Mayer
Philanthropy
Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society
Director: Joel Fleishman
Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Director: Charles Clotfelter
Social Science
Global Inequality Research Initiative
Director: Jay Pearson
The Social Science Research Institute
Director: Thomas Nechyba
Featured Faculty Research
Durham, NC is growing, but it has a legacy of inequality. For example, many neighborhoods had "covenants" requiring that excluded non-whites from buying homes. Professor Bob Korstad has been looking into the issue, and his research has been turned into a civic education initiative, Bull City 150: Reckoning with Durham's Past to Build a More Equitable Future. The project culminates in 2019, Durham's 150th birthday.