Patient Care & Community Health News

Sara Sawka Mazzarelli, MHS, PA-C, joined the department in this spring as a PA seeing patients at Duke Family Medicine North Duke Street. Mazzarelli graduated from the Duke Physician Assistant Program in 2013, and earned her BA in Biological Sciences from Mount Holyoke College in 2009.

On Feb. 4, Duke Family Medicine opened a second clinic location — Duke Family Medicine North Duke Street at 3116 N. Duke St. — with six patient rooms and three providers. Brian Halstater, M.D., and Lorraine Sease, M.D., MSPH, will see patients there, and an advanced practice provider (APP) position will soon be filled.

Effective January 1, Brian Halstater, M.D., assumed the role of medical director for Duke Family Medicine. In this role he oversees clinical operations at Duke Family Medicine Center, 2100 Erwin Road.

Kenzie Johnston, M.D., CAQSM, medical instructor of community and family medicine, joined the department over the summer. She graduated from University of Maryland's School of Medicine in 2014, is a 2017 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill's family medicine residency, and completed the UNC sports medicine fellowship in 2018. She sees patients at Duke Family Medicine Center and also at Duke Student Health.

Lamercie Saint-Hilaire, M.D., medical instructor of community and family medicine, joined the department in October as assistant program director of the Family Medicine Residency, and will be seeing patients at the Duke Family Medicine Center.

By the time Joyce Copeland, M.D., was in the third grade, she had already narrowed her career aspiration list to three options: doctor, the first woman astronaut on the moon or the first woman president.

DataWorks NC, in support of Durham’s Community Health Indicators Project, is publishing Durham’s first public neighborhood-level dataset on chronic health conditions. The data, published in Durham’s Neighborhood Compass and in a new Health Indicators Project website, currently cover type 2 diabetes and will soon expand to include stroke and other conditions. Fred Johnson, MBA, assistant professor of the practice of community and family medicine, serves on the board of DataWorks NC.

The Division of Community Health's Benefits Enrollment Center (BEC) recently launched the Benefits Enrollment Center Fellows Program, a program for Duke University undergraduate and graduate students to join the BEC outreach team, increase awareness of resources, and expand outreach to Durham’s aging population, including those who are homebound.

The Division of Community Health is hosting three conferences in November across the state to highlight a collaborative community approach to diabetes prevention for pregnant and postpartum women. The conferences, supported through a grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, are designed to:

Natalie Tammen, MHS, PA-C, joined the department as a physician assistant in June and will be splitting her time between Duke Family Medicine Center and Walltown Neighborhood Clinic. Tammen is a 2017 alumna of the Duke Physician Assistant Program.