M. Roy Wilson, MD

M. Roy Wilson, M.D., M.S. is Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Colorado Denver and Health Sciences Center and President Emeritus of Wayne State University as well as Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology.

Prior to joining Wayne State in 2013, Dr. Wilson served as deputy director for strategic scientific planning and program coordination at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Previously, Dr. Wilson 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, chancellor of the University of Colorado Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus and chair of the Board of Directors of University of Colorado Hospital. Immediately prior to joining NIH, Dr. Wilson chaired the Board of Directors of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and was acting president during part of that time.

Dr. Wilson’s research has focused on glaucoma and blindness in populations from the Caribbean to West Africa. He holds elected memberships in the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Glaucoma Research Society, the American Ophthalmological Society, and the Society of Medical Administrators. He has served on the executive committee of the NIH-funded Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study and chaired the Data Monitoring and Oversight Committee of both the NIH-funded Los Angeles Latino Eye Study, and the African-American Eye Disease Study. Dr. Wilson was a member of the advisory councils of both the NIMHD and the former National Center for Research Resources and served on the Advisory Council of the NIH Director as well as the NIH Director’s National Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce (co-chair).

He has served on the governing boards of many national organizations including the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, the Association of Academic Health Centers, the American International Health Alliance, the Federal Reserve Board of Chicago, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, where he served as chair (2017-18). He currently serves on the boards of Research!America, Alliance for Health Policy, the University of Miami Health System, and Blue Care Network of Michigan.

Dr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College, an M.S. in epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He performed his residency in ophthalmology and fellowship in glaucoma at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.

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