Doug Duncan - Later Career

Later Career

Duncan was honored by a number of mental health groups for having publicly announced that he suffered from depression. The public nature of his declaration led to an increase in the number of calls to Montgomery County mental health agencies from people seeking mental health treatment. In the months after his withdrawal, he continued to seek counseling for a time and began a medical regiment to treat the depression. He continued to publicly discuss these treatments and his experiences with the disease.

On March 22, 2007, Duncan was appointed Vice President of Administrative Affairs at the University of Maryland, College Park, effective April 4. This made him the University's chief administrative and finance officer with authority over the University's human resources, comptroller, public safety, facilities and environmental management, and procurement. During his tenure, Duncan led the East Campus redevelopment project, designed as a mixed-use town center with graduate student housing along the Route 1 corridor. In association with the project, he also worked to improve relations between the university and the surrounding city of College Park. On October 15, 2008, after a seventeen month tenure, Duncan announced his resignation from the University of Maryland.

In early 2009, speculation about a possible political comeback for Duncan began circulating in Maryland media. The speculation followed a speech by Duncan in which he discussed his experiences with depression. When asked if he would run for office again, Duncan did not rule the option out, and he went on to criticize incumbent Governor Martin O'Malley's policies, mocking O'Malley for expressing surprise at declining state revenues on the same day a new album from O'Malley's band was released. The Sun's blog Maryland Politics went on to ask, "Can Doug Duncan Make a Comeback?" in the title of one of its postings, and went on to question whether voters would accept a candidate with a history of depression.

In February 2010, several Maryland politicians, including Kumar P. Barve and Christopher Van Hollen, expressed support for Duncan's becoming the Metro general manager, after John Catoe announced his resignation from the position, effective April 2010.