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“Now we can go back there every spring and see the flowers and just kind of remember that moment,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell and Nesbitt, who plan to marry in September, started dating after they met in 2021, when Caldwell began working at Duke Raleigh Hospital.

“I do absolutely love the fact that we met at Duke and we got engaged at Duke Gardens,” Caldwell said. “I think that's just really special.” 

In honor of Valentine’s Day, meet other couples who found true love at Duke.

Jamie Botta and Tzvetan Benov

After Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications Jamie Botta began working as for the Department of Pathology in 2021, she discovered something joyous: She had full access to Duke’s libraries. She started visiting Perkins regularly to check out books for both work and pleasure.

Occasionally, she would talk to a friendly and helpful gentleman at the desk “with an intriguing accent” who went by his last name, Benov, because his first name (Tzvetan) was difficult to pronounce. Benov, a Senior Library Assistant, was always eager to help.

“Over the course of the next year, we learned a bit more about each other during my brief visits to check out books, like how our families both experienced living under communist regimes – his in Bulgaria and mine in Cuba,” Botta said.

Benov went for his annual two-month summer trip to visit family in Bulgaria in 2023, and when he saw Botta upon his return, the first thing he asked about was her father, who is 85 and suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s.

“I was moved by his kindness and invited him for a stroll around campus so that he could tell me about his trip,” Botta said.

 That stroll led to a relationship, and over the holidays Botta traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, to meet Benov’s family.

“We still stroll around campus on work breaks, and the quad of West Campus is dear to our hearts,” Botta said. “Oh, and I’m still a frequent Perkins patron.”

Justin Frye and Jason Funaro

For four years, Justin Frye and Jason Funaro were good friends. Frye, a Physician Assistant in Infectious Diseases since 2016, met Funaro, a Clinical Pharmacist, when Funaro did a rotation through the Infectious Diseases clinic in 2018.

They had mutual friends and enjoyed spending time together outside of work until Frye invited Funaro to accompany him on an endurance run in Lake Tahoe in 2022. Something clicked for both of them.

“It was a pretty organic kind of transition that in hindsight makes so much sense. We feel like we know each other so well having had this solid friendship and colleague foundation before we started dating,” Frye said. “We’ve only been dating for two years, but it feels like many years.”

They often talk about how much they credit Duke for bringing them together.

“We both trained at Duke and work at Duke and met at Duke,” Frye said. “We joke that we owe Duke for a lot of the good things we have in our lives – and we talk about one day getting married somewhere on Duke’s campus.” 

Lynda Keith and Anthony Keith

Lynda and Anthony Keith met in 1999 when they worked for the Private Diagnostic Clinic, now Duke Health .  Their dedication to Duke is just as longstanding as their devotion to each other; they have been married for 23 years.

The two met while taking walks around the building where they both worked.

"It started with us randomly bumping into each other, and we soon began scheduling time for our walks together," Lynda Keith said.

The couple has three adult children and Lynda Keith says they're "grateful for those moments that brought us together."

Lynda Keith, who began working at Duke in 1987, is now a Manager for Duke Health Access Services and Anthony Keith, who started at Duke in 1986, is a Device Support Analyst 3 for Duke Health Technology Solutions.

Janet Stolp and Bret Stolp

Janet Stolp likes to say that she and her husband, Bret Stolp, met “under pressure.”

Janet was a new nurse in the Duke Hyperbaric Chamber in 1985, working on a research project with Dr. Richard Moon. Bret Stolp was a second-year medical student at University of North Carolina who was also getting his PhD at Duke in Respiratory Physiology.

The couple began dating soon after meeting and married in 1986 at Duke Chapel – on the day of the Duke-Carolina football game.

“We had to make sure our wedding was after the game or no one would have been there,” Janet Stolp said.

Janet Stolp is now a Stress Management Nurse Clinician and Bret Stolp is recently retired from his position as Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology. They have been married for 38 years.

Brooke Overman and Dawson Brown

Shortly after meeting Brooke Overman at Duke Regional Hospital, Dawson Brown switched to night shifts. As a Certified Nursing Assistant, Brown had been working days and only caught brief moments with Overman during shift changes.

They discovered that although he went to UNC and she went to neighboring NC State, they met at nearby Duke. Brown is now applying to medical school in hopes of becoming a doctor at ��ţӰ�� Health System one day.

“We’re both so thankful to have had the opportunity to work in such a great health system all the while getting to meet and fall in love,” Overman said.

Jessica Covil-Manset and Michael Manset

Jessica Covil-Manset and Michael Manset have Duke at the core of their relationship. They met when she was pursuing her Ph.D. in English at Duke and Michael Manset was studying at Duke Law School.

They got engaged at Sarah P. Duke Gardens in 2019, married in 2021, and Covil-Manset completed her doctoral program in English in 2022.

Covil-Manset now is an Internal Communications Manager for the ��ţӰ�� School of Nursing. Michael Manset is a fair housing attorney for Legal Aid of North Carolina.

“We celebrated our third anniversary with a trip to Europe this past summer and look forward to many more years together,” Covil-Manset said.

Stephanie Nicholls and Chris Nicholls

In 2013, a small miracle of chance occurred. Stephanie Nicholls, from Maine, and Chris Nicholls, from Ohio, met in North Carolina when they were both working as nurses in the Duke cardiothoracic ICU.

Their time working together only a lasted about six months, but it was enough to realize that they liked each other as friends. They started dating and married in 2015. The couple have two children and will celebrate their 10^th wedding anniversary this year.

“We wouldn’t have met each other if it wasn’t for Duke,” said Stephanie Nicholls, now a Nurse Practitioner in Cardiology.

Chris Nicholls is now a Nurse Anesthetist.

Ally Setliff and Glenn Setliff Jr.

Ally Setliff says her Duke Raleigh Hospital co-workers saw sparks fly 17 years ago when she met her now-husband, Glenn Setliff Jr. She worked as an exercise physiologist for Pulmonary/Cardiac Rehab and Glenn worked for the IT help desk in the same building.

The two began playing tennis together, had adventure dates racing go-karts and playing laser tag. He attended her Zumba and bootcamp classes, and she saw him play bass in a Weezer cover band.

“I won him over with my goofy sense of humor, and he won me over with his smarts and musical talents,” Ally Setliff said.

They married in 2011 and now have two “very spoiled” dachshunds, Winnie and Oscar. They celebrated their 13^th anniversary last year with a trip to Cappadocia, Turkey.

“We are homeowners since 2020 and are reaching our travel, fitness and life goals together,” Ally Setliff said.

Amanda Pontsler and Joshua Pontsler

Amanda and Joshua Pontsler didn’t meet at Duke, but the two moved to Durham specifically for jobs at Duke and credit it with deepening their relationship.

The Pontslers were living in San Diego when Joshua applied for a position “as a dream shot” in 2022. When he got the offer, they moved across the country so Joshua Pontsler could begin a position as a Senior Manager for Engineering and Operations. Soon after, Amanda Pontsler landed a job as a Contract Manager.

They have two teenage girls who aspire to attend Duke, too.

“We can’t wait to see what the future holds, but definitely hoping to be a Duke family for life,” Amanda Pontsler said.

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