08
A First at Duke
L
BY ANN GEHAN
DUKE EYE CENTER
2021
eon W. Herndon Jr, MD, professor of ophthalmology and glaucoma division chief, has worked as a glaucoma specialist at Duke Eye Center for over 25 years. Despite his decades of experience, he recently experienced a first in his career—his first OR day with an all-Black trainee team. Only around 6% of practicing ophthalmologists are minorities, and only 3% of ophthalmologists are Black. Duke’s department of ophthalmology had only had three Black residents in its entire history until last year, when there was one Black member in each residency class. Herndon’s team decided to take a picture to commemorate the historic moment, which later received an overwhelmingly positive
reaction on social media. “I’m not a social media kind of person, but it’s been really amazing to see how the picture has generated so much buzz,” Herndon said. As part of Duke Health’s broader Moments to Movement anti-racism initiative, leaders at Duke Eye Center like Herndon are working to continually improve these statistics through initiatives to recruit and mentor medical students and residents from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds and fight against racism and discrimination in their everyday work. After Goldis Malek, PhD, associate professor in ophthalmology, was asked to serve on the School
