Vice Provost Keith Whitfield named Wayne State provost

Keith Whitfield, vice provost for academic affairs, was named provost of Wayne State University in Detroit Friday.

The WSU Board of Governors approved his hiring April 1 following a nationwide search to fill the position. Starting June 1, Whitfield will be the second-ranking executive officer in the administration and will oversee all academic matters including student performance, retention and faculty policies and decisions. Whitfield will succeed Margaret Winters, who is retiring from her position as provost and vice president of academic affairs after a 14-year tenure at WSU.

“I am excited for the opportunity of this new challenge,” Whitfield wrote in an email. “I have worked with colleagues at Wayne State for about 17 years, so while I am sad to leave my friends and colleagues at Duke, I am looking forward to the colleagues and challenges I will encounter at WSU.”

At Duke, Whitfield has been responsible for assessment and accreditation issues as well as oversight for campus-wide initiatives and strategic planning. Whitfield joined Duke from Pennsylvania State University in 2006 as a professor of psychology and neuroscience and a research professor of medicine. He became the director of the Center on Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research in 2008 and was appointed to his current position in 2011.

“This is a wonderful and well-deserved opportunity for Keith,” Provost Sally Kornbluth wrote in an email. “He is a distinguished scholar whose leadership at Duke has made us a better university. Wayne State is fortunate to have him as their provost.”

Whitfield, who specializes in developmental psychology, has conducted research about differences in African-American aging, cognition and health. He has been published more than 180 times and he won the Distinguished Achievement Award from the National Institute of Aging in 2010.

He has served as a member of several leading organizations in the field of aging research including the National Institute of Health, National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Whitfield’s WSU ties predate his arrival at Duke. He is a longtime member of the Wayne State Institute of Gerontology Steering Committee, which works to set the direction of aging research at the university.

“Dr. Whitfield’s academic credentials, his commitment to excellence and his understanding of diverse communities make him exceptionally prepared for this opportunity, and we look forward to his guidance and leadership at Wayne State University,” M. Roy Wilson, WSU president, wrote in a letter to the school community., according to a press release.

Amrith Ramkumar contributed reporting.