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Doctoral Student in Genetics and Genomics Wins 2014 Samuel DuBois Cook Award

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Roketa Sloan, a 2014 Samuel Dubois Cook Winner

Roketa Sloan, a fourth year Ph.D. Candidate in Duke's Program in Genetics and Genomics (UPGG), won a 2014 Samuel DuBois Cook Award. Dr. Cook, a retired Dillard University president and a former Duke professor, was the first African-American professor to hold a regular faculty appointment at a predominantly white university in the South. The awards recognizes people who reflect in their work and academic pursuits the objectives to which Dr. Cook dedicated his professional life -- social justice, mentoring and seeking to improve relations among people of all backgrounds.

Sloan is completing her dissertation research in the laboratory of Dr. Sue Jinks-Robertson, where her research utilizes Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast) as a model organism to investigate genomic instability induced by the chemotherapeutic drug, Camptothecin. Sloan is originally from Sumter, SC and comes from a military background. She completed her undergraduate work at Saint Augustine’s University (formerly Saint Augustine’s College) in Raleigh, NC and obtained her M.S. Degree in Biology from North Carolina Central University.  

In addition to her research, Sloan is currently the president of the Duke University Bouchet Society, a student-led organization whose mission is to strengthen the efforts of underrepresented minority graduate students who are pursuing careers in the sciences and education, as well as encouraging values that will promote diversity and inclusion in the sciences. During her time as a leader in this organization, Sloan has helped coordinate outreach programs at local colleges and universities to promote the option of obtaining a Ph.D. in the sciences to underrepresented minority undergraduates.

Sloan was also involved in the creation of the Ida Stephens Owens Black Tie Dinner, in honor of Duke Graduate School’s first black female Ph.D. She has served as a student coordinator for the Duke Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP).  This is a residential program for undergraduate students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the biomedical sciences.

Sloan has been actively influential in support of The Graduate School’s diversity recruitment efforts.  Her nominator, J. Alan Kendrick, assist. dean for Graduate Student Development, applauded her as a role model and mentor, who has ''selflessly performed the work of diversity, and stands out among her peers.''

See more information on all of this year's winners.