DETROIT – Wayne State University’s Board of Governors voted unanimously Wednesday to elect Doctor M. Roy Wilson as the University’s 12th President, effective August 1.

Wilson will succeed Allan Gilmour, who has agreed to serve as president until Wilson takes office. Gilmour joined the university as interim president in August 2010 and was elected president by the Board in January 2011.

Wilson?s appointment follows an extensive search that began in the late fall of 2012.

Dr. Wilson currently serves 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 (NIH).

As deputy director, Dr. Wilson oversees the development and implementation of an integrated system for planning, coordinating and evaluating the NIH health disparities research portfolio, in collaboration with the NIH institutes and centers. He also co-chairs the recently announced NIH Common Fund programs: the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity Initiative and the National Research Mentoring Network.

Previously, Dr. Wilson served as 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.

Dr. 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.

Dr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and an M.S. in epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was selected for 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. His 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.