HJBR Jul/Aug 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JUL / AUG 2023 17 ONE ON ONE ReynoldVerret, PhD Xavier University of Louisiana and Ochsner Health Announce New College of Medicine Reynold Verret, PhD, is the sixth president and second lay leader of Xavier University of Louisiana. Of the 107 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and 262 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, Xavier is the only Catholic HBCU in the nation. Prior to acceding to the presidency of Xavier, Verret has served as provost at Savannah State University and at Wilkes University. As chief academic officer at Savannah, he led the university initiatives to build enrollment, enhance the quality and diversity of academic programs, develop the faculty, promote interdisciplinary efforts especially between the humanities and sciences, and to create cooperative relationships with neighboring institutions and with other partners at the K-12 and higher education levels. He has also served as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. As faculty in chemistry at Tulane University and also at Clark Atlanta University, Verret took great pleasure and satisfaction in the education of students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. For many years, he led the Department of Chemistry as its chair at Clark Atlanta University. During his tenure at Clark, he also joined Morehouse School of Medicine as an adjunct professor of immunology while taking part in a research collaboration with the immunology and microbiology faculty. As a biochemist and immunologist, Verret studied the functions of immune cells, especially the mechanisms of resistance to the lytic properties of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. Other areas of interest included fundamental properties of biological membranes and development and identifications of biosensors and biomarkers. He has published over two dozen scientific articles on various biochemical research. Throughout his career, he has dedicated effort to increase the number of students, especially those from underrepresented groups, pursuing degrees in STEM disciplines, encouragement in continuing to advanced study, and mitigating the shortage of qualified STEM teachers. He has served on many professional organizations and advisory bodies, including those of the National Institutes of Health, the Board of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, and the Georgia Coastal Indicators Coalition. He has received awards and fellowships for teaching and scholarship. A Haitian native, Verret received an undergraduate degree cum laude in biochemistry from Columbia University and a PhD in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of the late Har Gobind Khorana. Beyond his degrees, he has postdoctoral experiences as a fellow at the Howard Hughes Institute for Immunology at Yale and the Center for Cancer Research at MIT where he completed research regarding immunology. PRESIDENT, XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA