Dawn Provenzale, a professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at the Duke University School of Medicine, died on April 20. She also served as director of the Cooperative Studies Program Epidemiology Center at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. Provenzle was a leading scholar in clinical research in gastroenterology. She made important contributions to the understanding of colorectal cancer screening and surveillance, Barrett’s esophagus surveillance, and the risk of esophageal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Within a short time after her arrival at Duke in 1992, Dr. Provenzale initiated the first training program in health services research in gastroenterology in the United States. Over the last 25 years, this program has trained numerous undergraduates, medical students, graduate students, and junior faculty.
Dr. Provenzale earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Cornell University. She held a medical degree from Albany Medical College and completed her residency training at the University of North Carolina and fellowships in gastroenterology and clinical decision making at New England Medical Center in Boston. In 1991 earned a master’s degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.