M. Roy Wilson was unanimously elected president of Wayne State University by the Board of Governors in 2013. Prior to joining Wayne State, Wilson served as deputy director for strategic scientific planning and program coordination at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
As deputy director, Wilson led the development and implementation of an integrated system for coordinating and evaluating the NIH health disparities research portfolio. He also co-chaired the NIH Common Fund programs: the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity Initiative and the National Research Mentoring Network. Previously, Wilson was dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for health sciences at Creighton University, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and, concurrently, chancellor of the University of Colorado-Denver and chair of the board of directors of the University of Colorado Hospital. Prior to joining NIH, Wilson chaired the board of directors of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and was acting president during part of that time. Wilson’s research has focused on glaucoma and blindness in populations from the Caribbean to West Africa. He holds elected memberships in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the International Glaucoma Research Society, and the American Ophthalmological Society. Wilson was selected to the list of Best Doctors in America for 14 consecutive years by Best Doctors Inc. and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Healthcare CEO of the Year in 2011. Additional honors include the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Senior Achievement Award, the Distinguished Physician Award from the Minority Health Institute, the Herbert W. Nickens Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the NIH Director’s Award.
