Dr. Raynard S. Kington Takes the Helm at Grinnell College

Dr. Raynard S. Kington, the newly-appointed president of Grinnell College in Iowa.

(Photo Source: Environmental Factor, the NIEHS News Blog)

On February 17, 2010, the Grinnell Board of Trustees announced that Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D.,  the current deputy director of the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.), will become the president of Grinnell College. This press release from PR Newswire describes the extraordinary educational achievements that launched Dr. Kington’s distinguished career:

Dr. Kington’s personal example underscores his commitment to educational excellence.  At the age of 16, he entered a combined undergraduate-medical school program at the University of Michigan that allowed him to earn his B.S. when he was 19 and his M.D. when he was just 21 years old. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Michael Reese Medical Center in Chicago and was appointed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. While there, he completed his M.B.A. and Ph.D. with a concentration in health policy and economics at The Wharton School.

Kington becomes Grinnell’s 13th president at a time of great prosperity. PR Newswire reports that during the previous president’s tenure,

the college generously enhanced its financial aid policies to continue to meet the full, demonstrated need of domestic students; established the Expanding Knowledge Initiative, a program that facilitates interdisciplinary study; initiated a master facilities planning process that led to significant enhancements of its buildings and campus; and instituted a proactive recruitment effort that is substantially broadening diversity within the faculty and student body.

Dr. Kington’s challenge, then, will be to maintain and, then, to build on and enhance the college’s growth and development in all areas, from the financial to the academic.

An openly gay African American man whose partner is also a physician, Dr. Kington introduces his family in the following inauguration video. Look for the moments when their son upstages his dad and adds some welcome levity to the otherwise solemn proceedings.

Posted by Ajuan Mance