DETROIT – Wayne State University will commemorate a new chapter in its long history with the investiture of Dr. Kimberly Andrews Espy at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) on Monday, March 18. The Wayne State Board of Governors unanimously elected Dr. Espy as the university's 13th president on June 30, 2023. A leader with more than 25 years of experience in higher education, she is the first woman president in Wayne State’s history.
President Espy will be formally invested during a 3 p.m. ceremony in the Detroit Film Theatre in the DIA that will feature an academic procession; formal installation; presidential address; and remarks from faculty, students, and friends.
Students, faculty, staff, alumni and community champions are invited to RSVP for this historic event.
During her first eight months at Wayne State, President Espy has highlighted the importance of deepening our work as a university of opportunity that drives prosperity for our community through accelerating mobility for our students, empowering health for urban families and fueling innovation for our competitiveness. During her first university address last fall, she announced plans for a multiyear initiative called College to Career, which will broaden the institution’s approach to student success and enhance its impact for our community. College to Career’s strengthen the work of our notable faculty that ensures our students graduate career ready and prepared to thrive.
During her address, President Espy will unveil a collaborative vision that builds upon previous successes and further powers Wayne State for a bright future.
“We sought a dynamic leader for this great university, and during the last several months, President Espy has hit the ground running and reaffirmed that we found our woman,” said Shirley Stancato, chair of the WSU Board of Governors. “She is fully engaged both on campus and in the community, and she understands that Wayne State and Detroit are inextricably linked. Her years of work as a university leader, her background as a researcher and mentor, and her experience as a trained neuroscientist and licensed psychologist have prepared her well to lead this university. There’s never been a better time to be a Warrior, and the board and the entire university are excited about the future under President Espy’s leadership.”
President Espy will be introduced at the event by her mentor, Dr. David J. Francis, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Chair of Quantitative Methods in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston, where he also serves as director of the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES), as well as director of the Center for the Success of English Learners, a National Research and Development Center funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Dr. Francis served as both her thesis and Ph.D. advisor.
Also speaking is Geraldine Richmond, Ph.D., the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation at the Department of Energy (DOE). In this role, she oversees DOE's Office of Science, the nation’s largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences; DOE’s applied research and development areas of nuclear, fossil, and renewable energy and energy system integrity; and the DOE’s national laboratories and facilities. Dr. Richmond served two terms as a presidential appointee to the National Science Board (2012-21). She also holds the Presidential Chair in Science and is a professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon.
Prior to joining Wayne State, President Espy served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where she championed social and economic opportunity by promoting affordable access to a top-quality research university education.
During her tenure, UTSA earned the an R1 classification by the Carnegie Foundation and was invited to join the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities after earning the Seal of Excelencia from Excelencia in Education for its commitment to serving Hispanic students — and, by extension, all students. UTSA also was named a 2022 Degree Completion Finalist by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. Her work played an important role in making UTSA one of only five research universities nationwide to receive a $40 million gift from Mackenzie Scott in 2021 to advance student success to those underserved by higher education.
Prior to serving as UTSA's provost, President Espy was senior vice president for research at the University of Arizona, where research and development awards increased to record levels. She also served as vice president for research and innovation and dean of the graduate school at the University of Oregon, where she helped secure funding from the Oregon state legislature to advance economic development and value to the state.
President Espy is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her work has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2002, and she has earned more than $22 million in funding to study how young children control their attention to promote later learning, academic and health outcomes, and how such skills can be affected by medical, environmental or social factors.
President Espy received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Rice University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology from the University of Houston. She also completed a clinical/pediatric psychology internship at the University of Louisville School of Medicine/Bingham Child Guidance Center and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. She is a licensed clinical psychologist, and a native of Cincinnati.