PrepMyRound

Duke undergraduate admission · Sample interviewer (fictional)

Fictional interviewer written for this sample; the employers are invented.

Denise Fairbanks (she/her)

Vice President of Operations at Piedmont Crescent Health Partners · Duke Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee interviewer Winston-Salem, North Carolina

About

I run the operational side of a regional network of outpatient clinics: scheduling, staffing, patient transportation, and all the unglamorous systems that decide whether someone actually gets to their appointment. I've spent twenty-five years in healthcare operations, first in consulting and then inside clinics, and I still think the most interesting problems are the ones where a good idea meets a real Tuesday. I've interviewed Duke applicants in the Piedmont Triad since 2010, and I love meeting students who've noticed something in their own town and wouldn't let it go. Outside work I'm usually on a trail or in my garden.

Experience

Piedmont Crescent Health Partners (Winston-Salem, NC) - Vice President of Operations, 2017 - present - Oversee operations for 23 outpatient clinics and about 900 staff. - Launched a ride-assistance program that cut missed appointments by roughly a fifth.

Piedmont Crescent Health Partners - Director of Clinic Operations, 2012 - 2017 - Standardized scheduling and staffing across 14 clinics.

Carrow & Linde Healthcare Advisors (Charlotte, NC) - Consultant, then Senior Manager, 2006 - 2012 - Advised hospital systems in the Southeast on patient flow and capacity planning.

Blue Heron Community Health Center (Durham, NC) - Program Coordinator, 1999 - 2004 - Coordinated outreach and appointment programs for uninsured patients.

Education

  • Duke University - B.A., Public Policy Studies, 1999. Volunteered with a Durham tutoring program; wrote a senior paper on rural clinic access in North Carolina.
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School - MBA, 2006.

Volunteering

  • Duke Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee - Interviewer, Piedmont Triad, 2010 - present; area co-chair since 2019.
  • Board member, a community garden network in Winston-Salem, 2015 - present.

Interests

Hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in sections, vegetable gardening (tomatoes, poorly), Duke women's basketball, mystery novels, and Sunday crosswords.