DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

DukeEngage Staff

The DukeEngage staff is a team deeply committed to student engagement. We're here to assist students as they consider which DukeEngage experience might be right for them, as well as faculty who might wish to develop a group site opportunity or mentor a student who is pursuing an individual civic engagement project. The staff list appears below.

Eric Mlyn
Director
eric.mlyn@duke.edu

Eric is the inaugural director of the Duke Center for Civic Engagement/DukeEngage.  Prior to taking this position, he was Director of the Robertson Scholars Program, a joint merit scholarship program at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.  He is a firm believer in the transformative power of experiential education, and has been building programs in this area for over a decade.  A political scientist with a BA from Tufts University and a PHD from the University of Minnesota, Eric's academic and administrative work over the last 25 years has in one way or another concerned itself with the role that society plays in fostering and strengthening democracy. His wife is a psychotherapist in private practice in Durham and his son Noah attends the Duke School and daughter Leah attends the Durham School of the Arts.  He is an avid New York Giants fan and reminds readers that they won the Super Bowl against the previously undefeated New England Patriots.

Lindy Black-Margida
Program Coordinator
lindy.black@duke.edu

Lindy joined DukeEngage in August 2008.  Prior to Duke, she worked as the Outbound Program Manager for IAESTE United States, administering the exchange program for U.S. science and engineering students interning abroad, and for the Study Abroad Office at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.  Lindy received a B.S.B.A., focusing on international business and marketing, from The Ohio State University. She received her M.Ed. in college student affairs administration at the University of Georgia, while working as a graduate assistant in the Office of International Education. Her interest in international education began during an AIESEC traineeship in Bangalore, India.  Lindy is passionate about traveling, both internationally and domestically.  She’s been to 49 U.S. states, and enjoys camping and reading.

Annie Kao
Associate Director for Finance and Administration
annie.kao@duke.edu

Annie has spent much of her adult life exploring—vocationally and geographically. She’s been, among other things, a lab tech work-study at Duke; a waitress; a dancer and pilates instructor; a software textbook copyeditor;  Duke Press journals production manager; a 6th grade public school English and social studies teacher; and, prior to joining DukeEngage in August 2008, an ad agency business manager. She has a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Duke (T’92) and an M.F.A. in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She’s lived in five countries and four states and now proudly calls Durham her home. She and her husband Dave Wofford—a graphic designer and letterpress printer—live in a house with a dog, two cats, and several hundred busily vermiposting worms.

Cloe Liparini
Assistant Director for Training & Student Development
cloe.liparini@duke.edu

Cloe was born in Verona, Italy, and moved to the United States as a young girl. Her bi-cultural, bi-lingual and bi-religious upbringing catalyzed her love of travel, learning about different cultures and civic engagement. She has studied, lived and worked abroad in various locations including the Dominican Republic, Chile, Namibia, and most recently in Armenia as an International Development Fellow with Catholic Relief Services. Cloe holds a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Bard College and an M.A. in intercultural relations from the SIT Graduate Institute. Prior to DukeEngage, Cloe worked at Duke’s International House in the areas of programming and training. If there is salsa music playing you are bound to find Cloe dancing along, and she has been known to throw quite a dinner party. Cloe and her husband, Nick, are the proud new parents of Lucia Fiona Liparini-McCoy and are presently immersed in the experiential learning known as parenthood.

Elaine Madison
Senior Advisor
elaine.madison@duke.edu

Elaine is senior advisor to DukeEngage and director of the Duke University Community Service Center.  Prior to her work community engagement work for Duke, she was associate director at Duke Continuing Education.  She received her J.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she was a Chancellor's Scholar, her B.A. from Colorado Women's College, and she has completed graduate work at Brandeis University and the University of Caifornia, Santa Cruz.

Inga Peterson
Assistant Director for Programs
inga.peterson@duke.edu

Inga joined DukeEngage as one of its very first staff members in Summer 2007. Prior to Duke, she spent several years at Harvard University in the Department of English and American Literature and Language, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Harvard Institute for International Development.   She also served as the assistant dean of student services in the Office of the Dean of Students in the University at the University of Chicago and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Hungary.  She received her M.A. in religious studies from the University of Chicago. Inga enjoys practicing her vertical jump, eating peanut butter, and krumping.  She is teaching herself to play the guitar, much to the dismay of her loyal sidekick - her dog Ella - who heads for the hills every time the guitar comes out.  Inga does not like macrame and things made out of shells.

NIna Ricci
Staff Specialist
nina.ricci@duke.edu

Nina brings with her over 14 years of service at Duke.  Her professional development has included playing a major role in the implementation of a professional ladder for Health Unit Coordinators (HUC), serving as Co-Chair of the HUC Council from its inception in 2003 until 2007, and participating as a conference speaker in 2004 and 2005 at DUHS Nursing Care Assistance/HUC Conference.  Nina graduated from of the Office Staff Development Program in 2007.  When not at work, Nina is active in the regional and local community.  She was selected as a 2000 and 2001 Audre Lorde Scholar that recognizes annually LGBT persons of African descent who are making significant contributions to their communities.  She enjoys reading, traveling, meeting new people, and spending time home with her partner and their dog, Pebbles. 

Sarah Trent
Assistant Director for Programs
sarah.trent@duke.edu

Sarah graduated from the University of Redlands in Redlands, California with a B.A. in government and Latin American studies. Sarah received her M.A. in political science with a focus on Latin American politics from Duke. Prior to DukeEngage Sarah worked for UNICEF in Panama City, Panama, on projects related to Latin American policy and the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, and for the Benjamin N. Duke and Trinity Scholars Program at Duke University.

Carrie Trutt
Departmental Business Manager
carrie.trutt@duke.edu

Carrie, a native of North Carolina, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a bachelor's degree in sociology.  Prior to joining the Duke Center for Civic Engagement, Carrie was employed by Duke Medical Center in the Department of Anesthesiology and by Duke University's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.  Carrie was a 2001 recipient of the Meritorious Presidential Award.  In her spare time, she enjoys scrapbooking, shopping, and spending time with her family, including her fiance, Chris, and their two dogs, Nellie and Cadie.

Eric Van Danen
Director of Communications
eric.vandanen@duke.edu

In his role with the Duke Center for Civic Engagement and DukeEngage, Eric oversees all marketing, media relations, web site, promotion and major event efforts.  Previously, he was director of communications for Student Affairs at Duke.  He also has been the chief communications officer for Southwestern University in Texas and an associate editor for the University News Service at the University of Iowa.  He received his M.A. in journalism and mass communications at the University of Iowa and a B.A. in English at Cornell College.  Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with twin whippet rescues, Jake and Bailey, as well as biking, camping and escaping as often as possible to the mountains of North Carolina.  A long-time volunteer with the SPCA in Austin, he also spends his free time working therapeutically with at-risk dogs (fearful, anxious, chronically shy) in need of social development.