Global Programs Support

David Bowersox

Vice Provost for Finance and Administration
Email: david.bowersox@duke.edu

The Global Programs Support (GPS) unit reports to Bowersox, who is leading the implementation of the new global support model and providing administrative oversight in line with Duke’s global priorities. David Bowersox serves on the provost’s senior leadership team and oversees finance, human resources, global services, financial aid, institutional research, and administration for the schools and college, academic service units, institutes, and centers at Duke.

A seasoned administrative leader, he previously served as vice dean of finance and administration for the Duke School of Nursing for four years and the school’s senior financial leader for more than 20 years, with responsibility for oversight and leadership of information technology, application and web development, educational technology services, human resources, budgeting, facilities, marketing, student financial aid and risk mitigation. He founded and leads the unit responsible for TAMS, the Teaching Assignment Management System, software licensed to other academic institutions. He also developed and taught an advanced finance course to Duke graduate students. Bowersox’s experience in the financial sector also includes roles as the chief financial officer for Texas Children’s Hospital Home Care, director of finance for a publicly traded company, and regional financial and revenue director for the nation’s largest home medical equipment and oxygen supply company.

Bowersox holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Towson University, an MBA from the University of Houston and completed the Wharton Executive Development Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Valerie Hausman

Associate Vice Provost for Global Administration
Email: valerie.hausman@duke.edu

Valerie Hausman is the Associate Vice Provost for Global Administration, in addition to her role as Associate Vice Provost for Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and Duke University Programming and Strategy. Reporting to the University Provost, she leads the Duke Office of DKU Relations. The office serves as the central point of coordination between Duke and DKU in China. Valerie provides strategic leadership and oversight of the administration of the partnership, including student and faculty exchange, academic programs, research collaboration, governance, financial and legal frameworks.

Hausman previously served as associate dean for global executive education at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business (2012-2018), overseeing the school’s executive education portfolio and managing a long-term strategic partnership with Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. Earlier, she coordinated the school’s global strategy, working with teams in the U.K., Russia, India, China, and Dubai to establish a strong institutional presence in each region. From 2008-2011, Valerie coordinated Fuqua’s global strategy, working closely with teams in the UK, Russia, India, China and Dubai to enable Fuqua to develop a meaningful presence in each of these regions. From 2005-2008, she served as Associate Director, Health Sector Management (HSM) at Fuqua, where she managed all aspects of the HSM Executive MBA programs.

Hausman’s broader professional background spans academia and the private sector, with roles at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, Deloitte Consulting, Goldman Sachs, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Tracy Clouse

Director of Global Finance and Administration
Email: tracy.clouse@duke.edu

Tracy Clouse is the Director of Global Finance and Administration for the Global Programs Support (GPS) unit and the Director of Finance and Administration for the Duke Office of DKU Relations, where she directs the financial relationships and activities between Duke and DKU. Tracy’s 30-year career in finance has covered all aspects of fiscal management including system design, development, implementation and training, project management and financial reporting. Born and raised abroad, Tracy feels fortunate to have a career that keeps her connected to the world. She received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Mary Washington.

Katherine (Black) Conte

Program Coordinator
Email: katherine.black@duke.edu

Katherine has over 11 years of experience working in the social innovation space supporting startups, nonprofits, organizations, and programs in scaling impact. Outside of that space, her career has included a variety of experiences including marketing and events with the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, photography and design with Niemann Capital, LLC, and ski instructing at Deer Valley in Park City, Utah. She began at Duke in the Major Gifts Office, served as the Program Manager for the Enterprising Leadership Initiative (a branch of the Hart Leadership Program) at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, and then worked at Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship on the social innovation team for 10 years.

Katherine graduated from Elon University in 2009 with a BA in Strategic Communications and minors in both Political Science and Art. Katherine was a Periclean Scholar and part of the Isabella Cannon Leadership Program. She received her Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University in 2018.

Alainna Liloia

Communications Manager
Email: alainna.liloia@duke.edu

Alainna Liloia is the Communications Manager for Artificial Intelligence and Global Programs Support in the Office of the Provost. Alainna joined Duke in 2024 as AI Communications Manager, and her work has focused on strategic communications and storytelling for the university’s AI initiatives and activities. She received Duke University’s 2024 Emerging Communicator Award.

Alainna holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern and North African Studies from the University of Arizona and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Wake Forest University. Her doctoral research was focused on transnational feminism and women’s roles in state-branding in Qatar. Alainna’s scholarship and other writing spans women’s issues in the Arab world, Middle East politics, human rights, and emerging technologies and has been featured in a variety of publications, including Oxford University Press, the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (JMEWS), Business Insider, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tech Policy Press, and The Conversation. Alainna’s past experience also includes teaching Middle East and South Asia Studies as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University and communications experience in the nonprofit and edtech sectors.

Global Innovation and Strategy

Krishna Udayakumar

Chief Global Strategist, Chair of the Global Priorities Committee
Email: krishna.udayakumar@duke.edu

Krishna Udayakumar is Chief Global Strategist and Chair of the Global Priorities Committee. Udayakumar leads Duke’s global strategy and innovation activities and works closely with international partners to define how Duke is engaging and investing in opportunities across the globe.

He is the founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, which focuses on generating evidence and support for health innovations and policy reforms globally. He is also Executive Director of Innovations in Healthcare, a non-profit co-founded by Duke, McKinsey & Company, and the World Economic Forum. Udayakumar’s scholarship has been published in leading academic journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, and Academic Medicine, and he has been interviewed or quoted in media outlets around the world, including CNN, BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico.

Born in Bangalore, India, Dr. Udayakumar spent his childhood in Virginia and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction in interdisciplinary studies. He received both an MD and an MBA (with a concentration in Health Sector Management) from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar. Krishna completed his residency in internal medicine at Duke and served as Assistant Chief Resident at the Durham VA Medical Center before joining the faculty of Duke University. He serves as a professor of the practice of global health at Duke and a core faculty member of the Duke Margolis Institute for Health Policy.

View all members of the Global Priorities Committee here.

Noah Pickus

Head of Global Strategy and Partnerships and Senior Advisor to the Provost
Email: noah.pickus@duke.edu

Associate Provost Noah Pickus serves as Head of Global Strategy and Partnerships and Senior Advisor to the Provost, setting a strategic agenda for Duke’s diverse academic projects on an international scale and initiating and managing vital global partnerships.

Pickus has served as Associate Provost at Duke for over 10 years, with responsibilities in academic strategy, global initiatives, educational innovation, and policy engagement. A faculty member at Duke for 25 years, Pickus served as vice-chair for the university’s 2017 academic strategic plan and managed the Duke 2030 strategy team, as well as cross-university initiatives in health system organization, experimental and collaborative learning, continuing and online education, and state-wide leadership training. As the Nannerl O. Keohane director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, he led a signature university-wide interdisciplinary program for ten years and oversaw its expansion in research and high impact undergraduate programming.

Pickus also currently serves as dean for academic strategy and learning innovation at Duke Kunshan University, where he previously led curriculum design and faculty hiring as dean of undergraduate curriculum and faculty development. He has written widely on innovation and globalization in higher education and brings decades of experience in educational leadership roles. He received a bachelor’s degree from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University and a doctorate in politics from Princeton University.

Scott Benson

Executive for Global Higher Education and Strategic Initiatives
Email: scott.benson@duke.edu

Scott Benson is the Executive Director of Global Higher Education and Strategic Initiatives in the Provost’s Office at Duke University, where he drives both global initiatives and high-priority campus projects. Driven by a commitment to improving access to a quality education, Scott has spent his career working across systems, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and public policy to incubate, launch, and scale bold ideas.

He is currently spearheading the development of the Future Universities Alliance and is guiding the design and implementation of the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging. His work involves managing complex stakeholder environments, building strategic partnerships, and designing the frameworks necessary for these institutional priorities to move from concept to reality.

Prior to Duke, Scott was the Strategy Lead at Cambiar Education and founded Trail B, a social impact consulting firm. He previously managed major grant portfolios at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and NewSchools Venture Fund, and began his career as a Broad Resident with D.C. Public Schools. Scott holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a father of three and an avid runner, backpacker, and tennis player.

Lisa Bourget

Senior Director, Global Business Development
Email: lisa.bourget@duke.edu

Lisa brings years of experience in the start-up, growth, and profitable leadership of dynamic enterprises within the pharmaceutical, biotech, and health care industries. Prior to joining Duke, Lisa was Senior Manager of Portfolio Analysis for Talecris Biotherapeutics, where she was responsible for defining research and development strategies by evaluating business cases for several new product and lifecycle management opportunities. She has collaborated on several start-up companies in senior housing, and health and wellness, and co-founded Clinexus, a start-up clinical research company. Her experience also includes senior roles in health care investing and divestiture, consulting for Accenture, and managing physician practices.

Lisa graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Economics and Pre-Medical Studies and earned her MBA from Duke’s Fuqua Business School.

Wendy Kuran

Senior Director for Global Business Development; Special Advisor to the Provost
Email: wendy.kuran@duke.edu

Wendy Kuran is Senior Director for Global Business Development and Special Advisor to the Provost. She is also Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement for Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and Duke in China. She originated the DKU role before the joint-venture independent university opened in 2014, building an integrated team in China and the US accountable for attracting philanthropic and other types of support. While establishing the DKU development, alumni relations, and corporate relations functions, Wendy has led the creation of a high-profile international advisory board and a legal foundation in China. Wendy also works to engage Duke alumni and parents in China. She speaks, teaches, and writes about the development of philanthropy in China.

From 2007 to 2012, Wendy served as Associate Dean for Centers and Global Corporate Relations at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, accountable for the school’s industry-facing strategies and initiatives. She created and managed centers in entrepreneurship and innovation, social entrepreneurship, leadership, international business, energy/environment, financial services, consulting, consumer goods and technology/entertainment/media.

Prior to her transition to academia, she pursued a 25-year career in the health care industry, holding senior-executive positions in hospital administration, health insurance design and management, consumer wellness, prescription drug management and new product development at UnitedHealthcare, PacifiCare Health Systems and St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, CA. Wendy earned her A.B. in English Magna cum laude from Princeton University and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Throughout her career, Wendy has been a board member and consultant for a broad array of nonprofit organizations, including AFS-USA, where she is Past Chair. She has lived abroad and traveled extensively on six continents.