John Wilson to Represent Faculty on Board

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 16, 2012) -- John Wilson, a professor in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Department of Behavioral Science, is the newest faculty-elected trustee to the university’s Board of Trustees. He will immediately fill the seat vacated by former faculty trustee Joe Peek and complete Peek’s unexpired term through June 30, 2013.

Wilson, who has been a resident of Lexington since 1977, was selected after a two-tiered voting cycle with 49.7 percent of the eligible faculty members casting a ballot. He received 557 votes (53 percent) to his competitor’s vote, Sheldon Steiner (College of Arts and Sciences) at 318 and Terry Conners (College of Agriculture) at 184.

Shortly after the results were made known to him, Wilson said he was honored to be selected by his colleagues across the campus. “I will depend on all of them for advice and support in the days ahead,” said Wilson. “I am really looking forward to getting to work with the Board,” he said.

Wilson joins the second faculty representative to the Board, Irina Voro, music professor in the College of Fine Arts.

“I want to congratulate Dr. Wilson on his election as a faculty trustee,” said President Eli Capilouto. “I look forward to meeting with John soon, and sharing a productive working relationship going forward as we build a better university for our students, faculty and staff -- and through it, a better Commonwealth for the people of Kentucky.”

Wilson joined the UK Department of Behavioral Science as an assistant professor in 1977, the same year he earned his doctorate of social psychology from the University of Michigan. A few years later he was named associate professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology. He was named a full professor in 2000 and began adding administrative duties to his resume.

Wilson says his primary job is to teach and to do research about teaching.

“A major attraction to me about UK was that the medical center was situated within a multiversity of every major college and discipline,” he said. He is the current primary course director for a 10-credit, year-long course for first-year medical students that focuses on communication and interpersonal skills. He has taught undergraduates in all the health disciplines and for about 20 years taught a graduate course, Human Response to Stress, which introduced him to students from all across the university.   With a colleague, he taught a Discovery Seminar course, “Pain, Suffering, and Healing,” to UK freshmen. 

“Teaching UK freshmen was a wonderful and transformative mid-life experience for me,” said Wilson.

His research on teaching seeks to improve curricula and pedagogy “to train more behaviorally skilled and effectively humane health care professionals,” and to that end has worked on teaching and research projects with faculty from nearly every clinical department and health professional college and from every social science discipline on campus.

Wilson raised his family in Lexington and says he learned a lot about UK from their experiences here.  His wife, Fran, is an R.N. and worked for years in the Medical Center and is now retired.  Their daughter Rachel was a UK teaching assistant, received a master’s degree in Hispanic studies from UK, and now works in Colombia.

“My transplanted Midwestern roots are firmly in Kentucky,” said Wilson.