The board of governors of Wayne State University in Detroit announced that on June 1 Keith Whitfield will become provost at the university. Wayne State University enrolls more than 18,000 undergraduate students and more than 9,000 graduate students. African Americans make up 20 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Dr. Whitfield currently serves as vice provost for academic affairs at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. There, he is also a professor of psychology and neuroscience, research professor in the department or geriatric medicine, and co-director of the Center on Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research.
Professor Whitfield is an expert on aging, particularly in the African American community. He has published more than 180 scholarly articles. Dr. Whitfield is the managing editor of the journal Ethnicity and Health and the co-editor of the book Handbook of Minority Aging (Springer Publishing, 2013).
Dr. Whitfield is a graduate of the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. He holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from Texas Tech in Lubbock.
