DTF – Founder

Ouida Duncan is the Founder and President of the Duncan Tree Foundation (DTF), a nonprofit organization serving the medical needs of the poor and vulnerable in selected countries and among local population groups.

Ms. Duncan, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, immigrated to the United States in 1974.  She was educated in the New York City public school system and later attended Pace University where she studied business administration.  Ms. Duncan spent 12 years in financial services communications departments where she managed staff with a focus on multimedia and computer graphic design.  She has worked for Citibank, Lehman Brothers, The Equitable, and AXA Financial, among others.

Ms. Duncan later started her career in advertising, serving in a design and operations capacity, supporting brands ranging from financial services to consumer goods and pharmaceuticals.

In 2008, after a personal medical crisis, Ms. Duncan founded Duncan Tree Foundation (DTF) to improve access to health care for underserved populations of the developing world.  Under Ms. Duncan’s leadership, DTF helped to develop and launch a 2010 prostate awareness conference in partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Jamaican Consulate.  Then, in 2012, with the support of renowned spine surgeon Dr. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, and corporate sponsors, Medtronic and Biotronic NeuroNetwork, DTF launched the Scoliosis Care Fund to help reduce a backlog of over 300 scoliosis patients at Kingston Public Hospital.

Ever since, the Scoliosis Care Fund has been the focal point of the Foundation’s mission.  The DTF team has made six humanitarian mission trips to Jamaica and two to the Philippines.  In doing so, DTF has provided free implants, free gold standard scoliosis surgery, and free spinal cord monitoring for over 50 young people in Jamaica and 9 in the Philippines whose families could not otherwise afford it.  DTF has also offered continuing medical education courses to local hospital staff to help build capacity and local hospitals.  Each surgery, if performed in the United States, would cost between $150,000 and $300,000.

In her spare time, Ms. Duncan stays connected to her faith and  loves spending time with her family.  She also enjoys exploring different cultures and has traveled the world extensively throughout North America, Europe, North Africa, Asia and South America.  Ms. Duncan studied Japanese at the Japan Society, speaks conversational Spanish and Arabic, and is the proud mother of four daughters, two of whom have volunteered for several medical missions to Jamaica and the Philippines.  She currently resides in Queens, NY.