McHenry to serve on Harvard Medical School science diversity board

[JSU Tigers]

(JACKSON, Miss.) - William E. McHenry, executive director of the Mississippi e-Center @ Jackson State University, has been selected as a member of the Advisory Board for the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation-funded Harvard Medical School Center for the Study of Diversity in Science.

McHenry, also a professor of organic chemistry at JSU, was among nine people from across the country selected March 13 to serve on the prestigious board.

The center will study issues and questions related to the recruitment, retention and career advancement of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical and behavioral sciences.

"This particular center will help bring about meaningful changes among the diversity of individuals majoring in sciences," said McHenry, a former program officer for the National Science Foundation. "Right now, America is facing a shortage of individuals majoring in science - especially African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians - at a time when China and India are developing a competitive science and technology workforce."

McHenry was the first national director for the federal government's Alliances for Minority Participation, a program designed to attract minority students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. He also served as the assistant commissioner for Academic and Student Affairs for the Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.