Leonard White, 1G/LI

My Story

Coming out as 1G/LI has giving me new appreciation and understanding of the “distance traveled” by so many in our Duke family. I am profoundly grateful for the diverse members of our 1G/LI community who infuse our campus with their extraordinary resilience and grit. They also remind us that life is about the journey – not just the destination; and that the scars we bear, whether they are visible or not, have stories to tell that are very much worth understanding and sharing. More personally, I’m grateful to my immigrant parents and their parents before them who endured daily hardships through the worst of times with hope and faith in their hearts for the opportunities and blessings that my generation and my (adult) children now enjoy. My aspiration as an educator and an administrator is to pour that hope and faith into the lives of others, especially those we so desperately need to enlarge our vision for a greater, more inclusive Duke University that is more creative, relevant and productive, and more faithful to our mission.