Aiming Higher

Wayne State's new provost embraces Detroit.

Francine Wunder
Special to the Jewish News

R

onald T. Brown was something of
a rebel growing up in his native
Atlanta. Prodded by traditional
Jewish parents to pursue medicine or law,
Brown opted instead to attend graduate
school and become a psychologist.
"I didn't have tattoos or really long hair,"
he joked,"but I guess studying psychology
was my way of separating from my parents."
This independent spirit, not to mention
an intense passion for higher education,
distinguished Brown as the top candidate
for provost of Wayne State University in
Detroit. He accepted the post last August
after the university completed an exhaus-
tive six-month national search.
Brown, who holds a doctorate from
Georgia State University and a bachelor's
degree from Emory University, both in
Atlanta, was dean of the College of Health
Professions at Temple University in
Philadelphia for six years before joining
Wayne State. He is recognized nationally
as a leading pediatric psychologist who
specializes in children and adolescents
with chronic illnesses, attention deficit
disorders and learning disabilities.
Smiling, he recalled his mother's reac-
tion to the news of his new job in Detroit.
"She had never heard of Wayne State," he
said, "that is, until her Mah Jong partners
sang the university's praises and rattled off
the names of graduates that she knew."
So what brought Brown to Detroit?
"There are only about 100 large urban
research universities in the country,"
he explained. "I wanted my next job in
administration to be at a university with a
top medical and law school, great under-
graduate and graduate programs and an
urban mission that reflected a diverse
student body. Wayne State had everything
I was looking for."
Since becoming Provost last summer,
Brown has already achieved measurable
results. Working in close cooperation with
WSU President Allan Gilmour, Brown
is developing innovative programs to
boost retention and graduation rates and
improve the university's customer service
and processes. And he recently recruited
two exemplary new deans to Wayne
State, Carolyn Shields of the College of
Education and Farshad Fotouhi of the

In November, Wayne State representatives signed agreements for student exchange programs with colleagues at several Israeli
universities. From left are Yaacov Schul and Eyal Ginio of Hebrew University, WSU provost Ronald Brown, associate dean Miriam
Greenberg and dean Robert Thomas, WSU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

College of Engineering, further enhancing
the university's international reputation
for academic and research excellence.
Last fall, Brown led a Wayne State del-
egation to Israel, where he successfully
forged agreements to establish student
exchange programs and research collabo-
rations with the Technion-Israel Institute
of Technology in Haifa, Ben-Gurion
University in Beersheva and Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, among others.

Tremendous Opportunities
"I believe Wayne State is fully poised
to realize its potential," Brown said.
"President Gilmour is wonderful. As a
former vice chairman and CFO of Ford,
President Gilmour understands commu-
nity engagement and the importance of
managing money wisely."
Brown says that although Detroit faces
many social and economic challenges,
Wayne State's Midtown location offers an
educational advantage for Jewish students.
"This may not be the fanciest place
in the world, but there are tremendous
opportunities here," he said. "Our faculty
and research are world class. We have

an outstanding Honors College for high-
achieving students. And we offer some-
thing that youth in Metro Detroit won't
find anywhere else — a chance to study
urban issues and urban problems right
here in their own back yard."
Recent campus visits by First Lady
Michelle Obama and the U.S. Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs Michael Mullen underscore
his point.
Having worked at other large urban
research universities in Atlanta and
Philadelphia, Brown sees Wayne State in
context as "a vibrant force in the commu-
nity, the suburbs and the world."
As examples, he cites Wayne State's
compelling work in bio and indus-
trial engineering; a vibrant College of
Education and College of Fine Performing
and Communication Arts; fine art collec-
tions and musical performance venues;
and medical education and research
programs affiliated with a national cancer
center and one of the few branches of the
National Institutes of Health.
According to Brown, Midtown is rapidly
emerging as a global health care and med-
ical research destination, in part due to

Wayne State's unprecedented investment
with co-anchors the Health Ford Health
System and the Detroit Medical Center as
well as foundation and civic partners. The
initiative offers housing incentives, new
residential and commercial development,
and consolidated transportation, security
and infrastructure services to attract
15,000 young professionals to live and
work in Midtown by the year 2015.
Long term, Brown says he hopes to
make Wayne State a more nimble and
user-friendly university. He wants to raise
Wayne State's national profile, highlight
its world-class faculty and research, and
ensure that the university remains rel-
evant to the community it serves.
"I want Wayne State to be a resource for
Jewish people in the entire metropolitan
area:' he says. "We have so many experts in
so many disciplines. Whether it's cancer,
ADHD or genetic screening, I would like
to see people in the Jewish community call
Wayne State and get the help they need."
Ron Brown's parents would be proud. P1

Francine Wunder is director of corporate and

public affairs at Wayne State University.

February 3 20'l1

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