Joanna Downer

Class Year: 1993

Major: Chemistry

Sport: Women's Volleyball

Term of Service: 2021

Joanna Downer holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. At CMU, Downer was a four-year letter-winner in volleyball and as a senior received the Academic Athletic Achievement Award given to the male and female four-year varsity athletes with the highest cumulative GPAs. Downer also holds a Master of Arts and PhD in nuclear chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently Associate Dean for Research Development at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

In 2009, Downer launched Research Development at the Duke School of Medicine to facilitate development of complex research grants led by the school’s faculty. She previously worked in science writing & media relations, first at Duke Medicine and then at Johns Hopkins Medicine. At Duke, she covered basic and clinical cancer research, and at Johns Hopkins she covered the biomedical sciences, genetic medicine, and cell engineering. Her years as a science writer built on her experience during graduate school as a Mass Media Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, placed at Time Magazine in Washington, DC.

Downer continued to play competitive volleyball until 2010, when work duties and lingering aches and pains took away the joy playing had always brought. She now runs long distance using run-walk intervals and typically completes 3-5 marathons or longer distance races each year.