Wayne State University Vice President of Government and Community Affairs Patrick Lindsey is highlighted as one of the Michigan Chronicle's 2013 Men of Excellence. The publication will honor Lindsey and several other Detroit men making a difference in the city during its sixth annual celebration Friday, June 7 at Detroit's Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. Lindsey's leadership roles and community affiliations are many. He has served in a variety of capacities with numerous organizations, including Warren/Conner Development Coalition, Black Family Development Inc., Eight Mile Boulevard Association, and the Detroit Urban League, to name a few.

Board of Governors elects Dr. M. Roy Wilson, as the University's 12th President Wayne State University's Board of Governors unanimously elected M. Roy Wilson the 12th President of the University. Craig Fahle spoke with Dr. Wilson about the University, his plans and more. Dr. Wilson is currently serving as deputy director for strategic scientific planning and program coordination at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health.

Wayne State University College of Nursing Dean Barbara Redman co-wrote an op-ed with deans Kathleen Potempa, University of Michigan School of Nursing, and Mary H. Mundt, Michigan State University College of Nursing, supporting state Senate Bill 2. The legislation would allow certified nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and clinical nurse specialists to provide primary care and other health services outside of the auspices of a physician. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia already authorize Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to deliver care, and many more states are considering legislation to this end. Unfortunately, Michigan is not yet among them. "A responsible and economically positive way to broaden the availability of health care is to allow advanced practice registered nurses to practice to the full extent of their education, training and certification. APRNs provide high-quality, cost-effective primary care with positive clinical outcomes and high levels of patient satisfaction. Passing this legislation will effectively begin the process of increasing access to primary care while providing for reasonable and cost-effective regulation and offering more one-on-one attention to patients."

On Wednesday, officials introduced M. Roy Wilson as its 12th president following approval by the Wayne State University Board of Governors. The board voted unanimously to hire Wilson, an international researcher, ophthalmologist and academic administrator. "Today is a day of hope for this university," said Gary Pollard, chair of the presidential search committee. Debbie Dingell, chair of the WSU Board of Governors, said it was a time of transition and thanked President Allan Gilmour for his service. "Dr. Roy Wilson is the right person at the right time," Dingell said. "He is coming to this institution with an academic background, understanding all the issues that go with it … and how we are driving economic development in this state." Wilson said that Detroit was part of what attracted him to the campus. "It's in a great city," Wilson said. 'There's something special going on here not only at the university but in the city. One of the things that attracted me to this position is being a part of that something special that you can sense. There's a love for this place, there's a real true commitment throughout the city … I sense great things moving forward."

Craig Fahle spoke with Wayne State University President Emeritus Irvin D. Reid and former Detroit City Council member Sheila Cockrel about two upcoming community discussions and workshops during which participants will assume the roles of city officials who must navigate the complex landscape of Detroit politics. The two sessions of this event are on June 6th and June 13th at the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit.

Shortly after his election as Wayne State University's new president, Dr. M. Roy Wilson gave his first one-on-one interview to WDET's Jerome Vaughn.

Wayne State University's Forum on Contemporary Issues in Society (FOCIS) will hold two community discussions and workshops June 6 and 13 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit. These free events titled "What would you do?" are part of the FOCIS series, which is designed to educate active and registered voters about historical factors and events that contributed to Detroit's economic crisis. During tabletop exercises, participants will act in the roles of mayor and City Council as they deal with the presence of an emergency manager, navigating the complex landscape facing city leaders and elected officials. These workshops are coordinated by WSU initiatives: FOCIS and its CitizenDetroit initiative, the Irvin D. Reid Honors College and the Eugene Applebaum Chair in Community Engagement. Event hosts include Irvin D. Reid, president emeritus at WSU, inaugural holder of the Applebaum Chair, director of FOCIS and a principal organizer of CitizenDetroit; and Sheila Cockrel, CitizenDetroit co-organizer, WSU Honors College faculty member, and a former Detroit City Council member and budget committee chair.

Dr. Brian O'Neil, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University's School of Medicine, commented in a story about National CPR Awareness Week. O'Neil says that most people trained in CPR are reluctant to do it. Statistics show that nationally only about 40 percent of us know the lifesaving technique.

Wayne State University researchers plan to study whether different freeway speed limits in Michigan for passenger vehicles and large trucks make roads safer. Peter Savolainen recently received a one-year, $175,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Transportation to review research, survey trucking industry groups, collect historical and new field data, and conduct a statistical analysis. The study will be delivered to MDOT officials, who are expected to consider whether to increase Michigan's speed limit for large trucks and buses. Savolainen is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering. He and co-principal investigator Timothy Gates, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, are among the researchers looking at the issue.

The Wayne State University Board of Governors will hold a special public meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday for an update on the search for the university's next president. The meeting will be held in rooms B/C of the university's McGregor Memorial Conference Center.

Last month, Detroit's emergency financial manager notified the DIA that its art is a municipal asset and might be sold to satisfy creditors. The art world is watching to see what happens next. "This is unprecedented," says Timothy Rub, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and head of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "I can't believe anyone is thinking about liquidating this public treasure." The AAMD has strict guidelines that prohibit museums from selling art except for the purpose of acquiring more art. Detroit's art museum is one of America's finest, praised for both particular works and encyclopedic range. "The museum has gone through a long period of struggle, but recently it's been doing everything right," says Jeffrey Abt, an art professor at Wayne State University who has written "A Museum on the Verge," a history of the DIA.

The Michigan Corporate Relations Network (MCRN) Friday announced eight Small Company Innovation Program (SCIP) grant awards that will enable research partnerships between small Michigan businesses and MCRN universities. SCIP provides one-to-one matching funds to support collaborative research projects between small and mid-sized Michigan-based companies and MCRN universities. By awarding matching funds, SCIP helps businesses stretch their budgets for critical, early-stage developments that will move them closer to commercialization. Through a competitive process, the following projects were selected for funding at Wayne State University as part of the latest round of SCIP grant awards: Climate Technologies Corp., NextCat and Stellar Fuels LLC. MCRN consists of Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Western Michigan University, and the University Research Corridor.

The opportunity for law students to work and study abroad has never been better at Wayne State University Law School, where the Program for International Legal Studies continues to expand and thrive. Nine Wayne Law students will be traveling this summer to England, the Bahamas, the Netherlands, Mexico and three locations in India. They will advocate for human rights, intern at top international law firms, study with the world leading international law scholars and much more.

New businesses have been started by nearly 1 in 5 alumni of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University - which is double the national average, according to a report to be unveiled today at the Mackinac Policy Conference. The entrepreneurial activity reached every state and more than 100 countries, with nearly half of the businesses launched in Michigan. U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, MSU President Lou Anna Simon and WSU Board of Governors Chairwoman Debbie Dingell will release the report this morning on the porch of Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel. The report is significant because there has been a lot of talk in Michigan, and across the country, about entrepreneurs and now there is data, said WSU President Allan Gilmour, who was reached by phone. "Every big business started as a small one," Gilmour said. "If we are going to renew ourselves and grow (in Michigan), we've got to be focused on entrepreneurs and put in place the mechanisms to get a small business launched." Notable entrepreneurs among the alumni include Paul Glantz, CEO of Emagine Entertainment Inc. and a Wayne State graduate.

Wayne State University's Forum on Contemporary Issues in Society (FOCIS) will hold two community discussions and workshops on June 6 and 13 at the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit. The free events, titled "What would you do?," continue the successful FOCIS series, which is designed to educate high-performance (active and registered) voters about historical factors and events that contributed to Detroit's economic crisis. During this year's tabletop exercises, participants will act in the roles of mayor and city council as they deal with the presence of an emergency manager navigating the complex landscape facing city leaders and elected officials. Both scheduled events feature the same format and will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. "Detroit's elected leaders continue to face daunting challenges as they collaboratively work to revitalize the regional economy, provide badly needed resources to residents and build a sound foundation for the future of Detroit," said Irvin D. Reid, director of FOCIS and a principal organizer of CitizenDetroit. "Following the recent appointment of an emergency manager, Detroit's elected officials now must work within the new dynamics established under the laws and guidelines of the EM position. This is a considerable challenge, and one that must be met in order to achieve success. The role of Detroit's citizens in this process is critical as they become earnestly engaged in the political process and motivated to initiate constructive action. For this to occur, citizens must be educated about the social and political issues facing Detroit."

Wayne State University received notice of a $820,398 grant from the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan (NEI) that will continue to support the Technology Commercialization Office's efforts to expand and improve the university's entrepreneurial culture and technology commercialization results. With this support from NEI, WSU will continue to expand the activities of its Technology Development Incubator to support the validation of early-stage technologies with significant commercial potential, increase licensing staff, and enhance marketing tools to create awareness of the availability of WSU intellectual property assets to industry and the venture capital community.

Michigan's three automakers and most of its supplier base survived the great shakeout of 2008-09, but that's no guarantee of a prosperous future. That was the clear message at the Mackinac Policy Conference Wednesday from three automotive executives, who said the industry faces a daunting challenge in making the industry attractive to investors and young talent in the future. Colleen Haley, executive vice president of Yazaki North America based in Canton, said the Japanese-owned supplier has forged strong relationships with five Michigan universities - University of Michigan, Michigan State, Wayne State, Lawrence Tech and University of Detroit Mercy - to recruit and mentor talent. Leuliette said the industry also needs to market the automobile as "the largest mobile device a consumer has" - a high-tech, cutting-edge product that offers the potential of careers full of innovation and potential growth.

New efforts are underway to combat what aging experts say has become one of the top threats facing elders: losing their savings to con artists and financial predators. Gerontologists at Wayne State University have created, for the first time, a potential victim profile that could alert professionals and families to which seniors are most psychologically vulnerable to fraud. And a bipartisan bill filed last week by U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat from Boca Raton, and two other representatives would create a federal advisory office dedicated to protecting elders from fraud and ensuring victims' complaints are handled efficiently and quickly. Deutch's bill mandates that the Federal Trade Commission, which would house the new office, "immediately" funnel elder fraud and exploitation reports to appropriate local law enforcement or regulatory agencies for investigation, something the FTC is not required to do now. The new office also would alert elders to new scams and educate them about investment fraud. Peter Lichtenberg, director of Wayne State University's Institute of Gerontology and the researcher behind the elder fraud victim profile, commented in the story.

In a story calling for nominations for the 2013 Shining Light Awards, sponsored by the Detroit Free Press and the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, it is mentioned that Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour was last year's recipient of The Neal Shine Award. The honor was "for decades of community service and stepping into the breach when WSU was looking for new leadership."

Tucked inside an incubator lab, a startup company has developed technology aimed at helping researchers discover better treatments for cancer, and eventually offering patients a less-invasive alternative to a biopsy. The device, created by DeNovo Sciences Inc., uses blood drawn from a patient to identify rare blood cells with information about the cancer. The technology has since found its way into a clinical setting at Karmanos Cancer Institute. There, a Wayne State University researcher has started experiments using the device with blood from cancer patients to help DeNovo improve the product. The business-research collaboration was made possible through a grant awarded by Michigan Corporate Relations Network, an alliance of six of the state's 15 public universities. The network includes Wayne State University, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Dearborn, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University and Michigan Technological University. Together, the six universities represent a wide geographic area and more than $1.8 billion in research expenditures, or about 98 percent of academic research in the state.