Spotlighting William Alexander Darity, Sr., PhD

Abstract

Spotlighting William Alexander Darity, Sr., PhD Claudia Baquet, MD, MPH (bio) Dr. William Alexander Darity, Sr. is Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst School of Public Health. A native of North Carolina, Dr. Darity has been a leader and pioneer in the fields of international health, operations research, and minority health and has advanced the fields of public health and advocacy as well as tobacco control. Dr. Darity was born January 15, 1924 in Flat Rock, North Carolina, a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Dr. Darity completed his formal studies in North Carolina, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from Shaw University and a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degree from North Carolina Central University. He became the first African American to receive a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1964. Dr. Darity accepted an Associate Professor appointment at the University of Massachusetts– Amherst in 1963. At that time, the small Department of Public Health, which offered a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree with a concentration in Environmental Health, had three full-time faculty members. He was appointed head of the department in 1968 and then Dean in the School of Health Sciences in September 1973. In addition to the Division of Public Health (an accredited School of Public Health) and a Division of Nursing (an accredited School of Nursing), this newly created School of Health Sciences included a Department of Communications Disorders, which offered majors and graduate study in audiology and speech and language disorders. At his urging upon his retirement, the Division of Public Health became a School of Public Health with its own dean, and the Division of Nursing became a School of Nursing with its own dean. Under Dr. Darity’s aegis, the Division of Public Health was expanded widely to offer a Master of Science degree with concentrations in Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Community Health Education, Environmental Health and Health Administration. In addition, a PhD program, which offered concentrations in the above areas, was also developed under his leadership. In addition, a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree was developed to meet the needs of working professionals who sought further their education to better prepare them for professional practice. A Master of Science in Public Health Nutrition, offered jointly by the Division of Public Health and the Department of Food and Science Nutrition, was also developed during Dr. Darity’s tenure. This pioneer’s last major responsibility at the University of Massachusetts was Principal Investigator of a $3.4 million, five-year research study on Smoking and Cancer [End Page 3] in Black populations, funded by the National Cancer Institute. This landmark study examined middle-income and low-income Blacks and factors influencing smoking adoption and associated health risks. Dr. Darity’s leadership at the University of Massachusetts Division of Public Health as an accredited school continued for 16 years until 1989. Dr Darity was named a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in October 1996 and received the Alumni Achievement Award from Shaw University in 1997. (He had previously received an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from Shaw University in 1990.) Immediately prior to his appointment at the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Darity served as Director of Program Development for the North Carolina Fund, Inc. (a statewide, privately funded, non-profit, anti-poverty organization). His extensive international experience included 10 years with the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. His tenure with WHO included teaching at the American University of Beirut School of Public Health in Lebanon and the University of Alexandria Higher Institute of Public Health in Egypt. Dr. Darity also served as a Health Consultant with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Arab Refugees and as a WHO Regional Advisor for 17 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which included 11 Arab countries, as well as Israel, Cyprus, Iran, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Pakistan and West Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Dr. Darity also played a major role as a consultant with WHO in establishing the first Master...