2025 Graduation Stories: Chloe Decker

Chloe Decker has won the most prestigious undergraduate award at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University: the Terry Sanford Leadership Award. The award is named for Sanford’s founder, who was known for ethical leadership. 

Campus-wide, Chloe's most impactful leadership role may have been in her role as Chair and Student Voting Director of Duke Votes, Duke’s largest nonpartisan political club, for the national 2024 General Election. Under her leadership, Duke Votes registered more than 3,000 students to vote and recorded the highest-ever turnout at Duke’s on-campus early voting site at the Karsh Alumni Center.

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Throughout the fall semester, Duke Votes held more than 250 hours of events in partnership with student groups and centers across Duke’s campus, including the Polis Center for Politics, Duke’s Office of Government Relations, Duke Student Affairs, and Duke Athletics. The group also led university-wide “Democracy Days.”  

In addition to registering voters, Chloe’s team had to navigate the evolving requirements that college students had to meet to cast their ballot in North Carolina. After the election, Chloe and her executive leadership board were invited to discuss the success of Duke Votes with President Vincent Price. 

In addition to Duke Votes, Chloe served as President and Academic Chair of the Duke Public Policy Majors Union, and the Attorney General of Duke Student Government.

As President of the Public Policy Majors Union (PPMU), Chloe managed a ten-person executive leadership board and worked with Sanford staff to plan programming for prospective and declared public policy majors. 

Chloe Decker will graduate in May 2025 with a major in Public Policy, a minor in history and a Certificate in Child Policy Research. She plans to attend the University of North Carolina School of Law on a merit scholarship.