Wayne State's six-month search for a new president is over, Kim Kozlowski of The Detroit News says the university will announce next week.
Dr. M. Roy Wilson — a deputy director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities — will be the school's next president, according to several high-ranking sources involved in the process.
Wilson, 59, is an academic administrator, international researcher and ophthalmologist who trained at Harvard University. His career has spanned nearly three decades during his ascent in academia across the nation.
Dr. M. Roy Wilson, a distinguished eye heath researcher, has a Japanese mother and African-American father.
The incoming leader will replace Allan Gilmour, who is retires this month.
Dr. Wilson was born in 1953 in Yokohama, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an African-American father, Kozlowski writes. She speaks with former MSU president M. Peter McPherson, a friend of the appointee.
"Roy is deeply committed to the education of a diverse student population," said McPherson. . . ."He's a strong leader with commitment, vision and drive."
The News' exclusive report has details of the eye-care researcher's career in California, Colorado, Texas, Nebraska and elsewhere.
In 1998, he was appointed dean of Creighton University School of Medicine, making him one of the first African-American ophthalmologists to be appointed dean of a major medical school.
