Nicholas School Board of Visitors member Elizabeth “Beth” York Schiff AB’81, JD’85, P’14, P’22, has a number of reasons to give back. Her parents, Vann and Ann York, were devout Methodists who instilled their values in Beth and her siblings by serving people in need in their community of High Point, N.C.
But one of the biggest motivations for Beth is her experience as a two-time cancer survivor. At the age of 17, she became one of the first wave of people to defeat Hodgkin’s lymphoma. However, she has grappled with various health issues in the many years since her treatment.
“This problem didn’t get a lot of attention until we started having so many survivors, so it’s really a result of the treatment being so successful,” she said.
Many survivors have heart damage from the radiation or are diagnosed with secondary cancers, and those who had their spleens removed can be more prone to serious infections. These side effects can be even more pronounced in pediatric cancer survivors.
Beth has worked for almost 20 years to help the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center (UCCC) develop a cancer survivorship program. She is also supporting UCCC in its efforts to become a Comprehensive Cancer Center, which are centers recognized by the National Cancer Institute for meeting rigorous standards for developing better approaches to preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer.
The Nicholas School is leading the nation in educating young scholars on environmental issues and solutions, and I can think of no more important mission at Duke.
Beth Schiff AB’81, JD’85
“We’re trying to build more awareness of long-term side effects by medical professionals and also educate patients so they can become their own advocates,” Beth said. “UCCC’s Survivorship and Supportive Services Program aims to provide cancer survivors with care that addresses their special needs and risks.”
Ties between health and the environment
One of the main reasons Beth joined the Nicholas School’s Board of Visitors was the school’s focus on the link between the environment and human health.
Beth partnered with her mother, Ann, and siblings, Greg York AB’85 and Lynn York AB’79, to establish the “Ann & Vann York Family Professorship,” an endowed professorship at the Nicholas School focusing on health and the environment. This gift is being matched by The Duke Endowment. Beth has also contributed generously to the Nicholas School’s Annual Fund.
“Both of my mother’s parents died of cancer,” Beth said, “And she’s always had the belief that cancer may be caused by something in the environment. Part of this endowment is to fund work within the Duke community and North Carolina to research this issue.”
Joel Meyer, co-chair of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Health at the Nicholas School, thinks this belief is well-founded.
“Many of the chronic health problems we are currently facing as a society are the result of environmental as well as genetic factors, but these are complex diseases and we don’t understand the details well,” he said. “Beth and her family’s visionary gift will support exciting research to unravel causes of these complicated diseases, further integrating work by Duke’s outstanding Schools of the Environment, Medicine, and Nursing.”
Beth’s nephew, Will Warasila MFA’20, is a photographer who documented the impact of the coal ash pits near Walnut Cove, N.C., while in graduate school at Duke. In his work in Walnut Cove, he also documented the unusually high incidence of cancer. Beth believes that this information needs to be shared more broadly to help find solutions.
“Education is so important, and I believe the Nicholas School is doing so much to prepare young people to address the wide range of environmental issues we have in this country,” she said.
A family of Blue Devils
Beth’s mother, Ann, always loved Duke, and all three of her children, including Beth, ended up enrolling at Duke, as well as six of Ann’s eight grandchildren.
Beth majored in public policy at Duke with a concentration in health policy. After graduation, she decided to continue her studies at Duke Law School.
She practiced law at the Wall Street firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City for five years, and then at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati. After her law career, she became more involved in volunteering in the community.
In addition to her work with the Nicholas School and UCCC, she has served as President of the Women’s Capital Club of Cincinnati and on the boards of the Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Impact 100, Children’s Museum of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Arts Festival, and Cincinnati Bar Foundation. She was most recently chair of the board of The Seven Hills School, a pre-K–12 independent school in Cincinnati.
She has been an active volunteer at Duke for many years. She has also served on the Trinity Board of Visitors, various undergraduate and law school reunion committees, and the Duke Forward Campaign Steering Committee.
Beth and her husband, Jim, have generously supported Duke in many areas, and were the 2018 recipients of the Richard H. Brodhead Service Award for their support of Duke University. Their contributions range from supporting undergraduate faculty-mentored research to funding a professorship in the English department.
“Duke has had a huge impact on my life and on the lives of everyone in my family. We are excited to help fund this very important work at the Nicholas School focusing on our ever-evolving knowledge of the environment’s impact on health,” Beth said. “The Nicholas School is leading the nation in educating young scholars on environmental issues and solutions, and I can think of no more important mission at Duke.”
