The second African American woman to receive a medical degree from Duke School of Medicine, Dr. Wilson graduated 1st in her class in 1973 and served as President of the Medical Student Body, the first African American to serve in the role. Dr. Wilson was the first African American woman in Duke’s School of Medicine with tenure, and in 1994 she became the second woman of any race or ethnicity to attain the rank of full Professor in Duke’s Department of Medicine.
During her career in the Duke Gastroenterology Division, Dr. Wilson was the recipient of awards that include the Duke Medical Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award, the Duke School of Medicine Master Clinician Teacher Award, and the AGA’s Outstanding Women of Science Award. She was elected Secretary of the AGA, the first woman and the first African American to serve in this position.
Established in 2021, the Joanne A. P. Wilson Lecture is given annually in February, during Black History Month.
Joanne A. P. Wilson Lectures
- 2025 Renee Williams, MD Professor, Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Associate Chair, Health Equity and Inclusion. Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Institute for Excellence in Health Equity. Director, Saul J Faber Program in Health Equity, Department of Medicine. Leader, Medical Education Pillar, Institute for Excellence in Health Equity (IEHE)
- 2024 Andrea Ewing Reid, MD, MPH Associate Dean for Student and Multicultural Affairs in the Program in Medical Education and Director of the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs at Harvard Medical School. Faculty, Department of Medicine, Gastrointestinal Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, Director of Diversity and Faculty Development for Gastroenterology.
- 2023 Rotonya Carr, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Cyrus E. Rubin Endowed Chair and Division Head, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, University of Washington
- 2022 John M. Carethers, MD, MACP, C. Richard Boland Distinguished University Professor, John G. Searle Professor and Chair, Professor, University of Michigan
- 2021 Juanita Merchant, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Division of Gastroenterology at University of Arizona College of Medicine