Wayne State University plans to name Kimberly Andrews Espy its next university president
Wayne State University plans to name Kimberly Andrews Espy its next university president, the first woman to hold the position, according to an email sent to the university community Thursday morning.
The university's board of governors is set to meet Friday to vote on Espy, who has served as the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at San Antonio since June 2018.
Before that, Espy was senior vice president for research at the University of Arizona. Espy, a trained neuroscientist and licensed psychologist, has earned more than $22 million in funding to study how young children control their attention to promote learning, academic and health outcomes, and how these skills get off track related to medical, environmental or social factors, according to her university website biography.
"It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Board of Governors has selected Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D., as the finalist to become the 13th president of Wayne State University, and the first woman to hold this important leadership position," Wayne State Board Chair Mark Gaffney wrote in a university-wide email Thursday morning.
The university will hold a special Board of Governors meeting at 3 p.m. Friday, at the Law School to take up the appointment.
"The selection of Dr. Espy comes after an extensive national search that began in earnest last fall with campus listening sessions and the assembly of a diverse and thoughtful search committee that included representation from across the university and four members of the Board of Governors," Gaffney wrote.
Dr. Espy received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Rice University and a master's. 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.
More: Wayne State to offer free tuition to students whose families make under $70,000 annually
Wayne State’s roots stretch to 1868, when five physicians in the Civil War era helped found the Detroit Medical College, which eventually became Wayne State's School of Medicine. The university has grown into a full-scale research university with a 200-acre campus in Midtown and is home to nearly 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
Current Wayne State president M. Roy Wilson, who has served the public research university in Detroit for 10 years, announced his departure plans last year.
During his tenure at Wayne State, Wilson increased the graduation rate and reduced the gap between graduation rates for students of color and white students. He also expanded the campus itself; during his tenure, the university built the WSU Fieldhouse in partnership with the Detroit Pistons, the STEM Innovation and Learning Center and the Mike Ilitch School of Business. There were also major renovations of the Student Center Building, campus housing added and renovations to State Hall. One other project, the Hilberry Gateway Performance Arts Complex, opened in April.
Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @matthewsdolan
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kimberly Andrews Espy to be named Wayne State president
