Dr. M. Roy Wilson, Wayne State University’s 12th president, was the guest of honor Dec. 2 at a reception hosted by ACCESS at the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn. The event was attended by 50 Wayne State University (WSU) guests, members of the ACCESS Board of Directors, as well as educational and community leaders.
Wilson was unanimously elected president by WSU’s Board of Governors in August. Wilson thanked ACCESS for the warm welcome, and said he hopes to expand the university’s relationship with ACCESS and the city of Dearborn to recruit more Arab American students at WSU.
“I am in awe of such a powerful leader who has experience in the corporate and private sector, as well as government and academia. Dr. Wilson takes on exceedingly challenging positions and is still able to make a difference,” Hassan Jaber, ACCESS executive director said.
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), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Wilson has degrees from Allegheny College, the University of California, and Harvard Medical School. His research focuses 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.
