Originally from Greenville, S.C., Joy E. Duer, MD Class of 2024, received her undergraduate degree at Duke University, where she became interested in service to others through medicine and quality improvement. She conducted research on receptor-negative breast cancer at the Duke University Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies and volunteered at the Durham VA Medical Center.
At Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Duer found her love for patient care and the intersection of humanism and medicine. Throughout her undergraduate medical education, she served the MD student body as chair of the School of Medicine Honor Council, advocated for peers as a Rotation Group Leader in the clinical year and mentored first-year medical students in clinical skills. Additionally, she learned the incredible value of a people-first mindset, and she worked to foster a community that acknowledges and values the unique challenges faced by medical trainees and providers.
Outside of medical school, she is an avid reader and runner and serves as an alumni interviewer for Duke undergraduate admissions. Duer will soon be the first MD in her family and is a recipient of the U.S. Army Health Professions Scholarship. She will begin her residency in anesthesiology at Brooke Army Medical Center this summer and looks forward to sharing the Wake Forest community spirit and passion for quality and for equitable patient and provider care.