After a national search, Global Health Pathway Alumni and associate professor Lauren Franz, MBChB, MPH, has been selected as the director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, effective July 6. Franz served as the center’s associate director from 2022 to 2024, when she became the interim director after Geraldine Dawson, PhD, William Cleland Distinguished Professor, stepped down from the center leadership role. Franz has excelled in this interim position, and the search committee was deeply impressed by her vision and approach to advancing the center’s mission in the coming years. Franz is a renowned child and adolescent psychiatrist who has led and co-led a number of behavioral and medical autism clinical trials. She has also co-led several studies using artificial intelligence and medical records to predict the likelihood of autism and late talking and to understand developmental trajectories. Read more here.
