Dr. Allen’s twins, Peter and D. Allen, celebrated their 25th birthday with her while Dr. Allen was attending the 2011 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting in Chicago.
She returned to Duke and helped set up the assay for ANCA in the FANA (fluorescent anti-nuclear antibody) laboratory, where she was then the director.
For many years, notes Bill St.Clair, MD, the W. Lester Brooks Jr. Distinguished Professor of Medicine and chief of the Duke Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, “Dr. Allen has been the local expert on vasculitis.” She and Dr. St.Clair participated in the first multicenter, randomized clinical trials of ANCA-associated vasculitis conducted in the U.S.: WGET and RAVE.1,2
And, of course, results from the RAVE trial led to the transformation of the management of ANCA vasculitis.
Champion for Diversity
Dr. Allen and Barton F. Haynes, MD, with Anthony Fauci, MD (center) in 1995 when Dr. Fauci received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Duke University Medical School.
Dr. Allen leaves a division appreciably more diverse than the one she joined as an associate in medicine in 1982, an appointment that overlapped with her fellowship there in rheumatology. (She also did her internship and residency at Duke.) Her colleagues attribute her efforts, both within the division and at the institutional level, as pivotal in advancing opportunities for women.
Peter Lange, PhD, professor emeritus of political science and provost emeritus of Duke University (1999–2014), appointed Dr. Allen as special assistant to the provost for faculty diversity and development in 2005. During her one-year tenure in that post, they met the goals set to double the number of African American faculty members.
Dr. Lange appointed her vice provost in 2006, and she served in that position until 2015. Dr. Allen “displayed a deep commitment to women’s issues and minority issues,” says Dr. Lange. “She combines incredible empathy with resolve. You could rely on her to be thorough and committed, to press her case when necessary and to work well with others.”
“I always saw her as a consistent and focused leader, someone I felt honored to partner with,” says Benjamin D. Reese Jr., PsyD, former vice president of institutional equity and chief diversity officer, and now adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Duke. “Many people will focus on gender and racial equity when there is a project to do or some kind of protest. What stood out to me about Nancy was the consistency of her focus on issues of equity, particularly related to gender. In all our partnerships I felt I had someone who could pay attention to all of the details and tracking and monitoring that are so important to change.”
