Annapurna Deo Wins Duke’s Sullivan Award

Annapurna Deo, staff assistant in the Office of Infrastructure Operations at Duke University Health Technology Solutions in Duke University Health System, has been named the 2009 recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award from Duke University.

The award, presented by Provost Peter Lange, seeks to perpetuate the excellence of character and humanitarian service of Algernon Sydney Sullivan by recognizing and honoring such qualities in others.

An award recipient exemplifies the qualities of generosity, service, integrity and deep spirituality, as well as “nobility of character,” which the Sullivan Foundation defines as “when one goes outside the narrow circle of self-interest and begins to spend oneself for the interests of humankind.”

Deo has been the staff assistant in the Office of Infrastructure Operation since July 2001. She previously worked on the substitute teaching staff, teaching Hindi in the Department of Anthropology, and for two years was an assistant librarian in Perkins Library. She is pursuing a master’s degree in public administration.

Deo’s colleagues and friends describe her as a person of great faith who is friendly, gentle, kind and sincere to all, and who always goes “above and beyond” as an employee, friend and world citizen.

Deo has a long history of community involvement. An outspoken advocate for women’s rights, she is the founding president of the Nepali Women’s Global Network (NWGN), and co-founder and former president of the Nepali Center of North Carolina (NCNC), two organizations dedicated to improving the lives of Nepali women across the U.S. and the world. In her work with NWGN, she has arranged scholarship programs for Nepali women, and has raised funds for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to support Tsunami relief.

In 2008, Captive Daughters, an international organization dedicated to ending sex trafficking, collaborated with NWGN to establish the Annapurna Activist Prize in honor of her lifetime of work on behalf of Nepali women and children. Currently Deo is serving for a second term on the Advisory Committee for the Nepal Americas Council (NAC) as the vice president and the representative for the Southeast Region.

She is the vice president of College Against Cancer (CAC), and works to prevent breast cancer through awareness and to support survivors of cancer. She also is a former Advisory Board member and an active participant for 20 years in the Hindu Society of North Carolina.