Dr. M. Roy Wilson began serving as chancellor of the University of Colorado Denver (UC Denver) in July, 2006.  UC Denver consists of a general academic campus with 8 schools and colleges and a health sciences campus with 5 schools and colleges and serves approximately 28,000 students.  He holds elected memberships in the Institutes of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Ophthalmological Society, and the Glaucoma Research Society.

In addition to the board of the University of Colorado Hospital, for which he is the chairman, Dr. Wilson serves on the governing boards of the Denver Children’s Hospital, Auraria Higher Education Center, Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority, Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural & Minority Medicine, American International Health Alliance, Inc., Association of Academic Health Centers, Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) and the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU).  He serves as presidential chair for the Commission on Access, Diversity, and Excellence of APLU and the Health Strand Initiative of USU.  Dr. Wilson was an initial Advisory Council member of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and served four years as chair of its Strategic Plan subcommittee.  He currently serves on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Research Resources of NIH and the FDA Advisory Committee on Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs.

Dr. Wilson received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his Master of Science in epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health.  He performed both his ophthalmology residency and glaucoma fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Wilson was named president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in 2003.  In 1998, he was appointed dean of the School of Medicine at Creighton University, and then served as both dean and vice president for Health Sciences from 1999-2003.  Prior to that time, he was professor of ophthalmology both at the Jules Stein Eye Institute of UCLA and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science.

Dr. Wilson’s major scientific contributions have been in bridging the fields of epidemiology and ophthalmology.  He has delivered more than 200 invited lectures, many of these internationally, and has published more than 300 articles, book chapters and abstracts.

Dr. Wilson was selected in “Best Doctors in America” for consecutive years from 1996 to 2009.  Among his many awards are the Distinguished Physician Award from the Minority Health Institute, the Honored Alumnus Award from the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Gold Citation from Allegheny College, and the Association of American Medical College’s Herbert W. Nickens Award.