Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson has been named chair-elect of the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) board of directors. He will succeed Marsha D. Rappley, chief executive officer and vice president for health sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System, as chair in November.
The AAMC is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research. Its members comprise all 147 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies.
“This is a highly effective board that serves our nation’s medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic societies exceptionally well,” said Wilson. “I am pleased to be in this leadership role, particularly at this time of much anticipated change.”
In addition to the chair and chair-elect, the AAMC Board of Directors includes the AAMC president and CEO, immediate past chair, and chairs and chairs-elect from the association’s three member councils—the Council of Deans, Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems, and Council of Faculty and Academic Societies. The board also has seven at-large members, including a medical student, a resident physician, and one “public member” not affiliated with the AAMC, a medical school, or a teaching hospital.
Wilson has been president of Wayne State University since August 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 of the National Institutes of Health.
Previously, he 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 University of Colorado Hospital. Wilson also chaired the Board of Directors of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and was acting president during part of that time.
Wilson’s research as an ophthalmologist has focused on glaucoma and blindness in populations from the Caribbean to West Africa. He was elected a lifetime member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2003. He received his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College, an M.S. in epidemiology from UCLA, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
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, the NIH Director’s Award, and the Cato T. Laurencin Distinguished Research Career Award from the National Medical Association. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Allegheny College in 2016.
Additional information about the AAMC and its member medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org.