Finishing up our month of honoring African-American Tufts graduates is a 1962 graduate who has gone on to be a leader in medical education and promoting minority opportunities in the field.

Donald E. Wilson (M’62, H’08) is Director of the Program in Minority Health and Health Disparities Education and Research, former Dean, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School Of Medicine. Among Dr. Wilson’s many accomplishments, his becoming Dean of University of Maryland School Of Medicine is especially significant, as he became the nation’s first African-American dean at a predominantly white medical school. Dr. Wilson, “increased the diversity of the student body and quadrupled the number of minority faculty” during his tenure as dean. According to Dr. Wilson, “All I did is level the playing field. All of a sudden, we started finding more qualified people of color.”

Image: Howard University News Room accessed February 26, 2013 from http://www.howard.edu/newsroom/releases/2009/091016wilson.htm