Alumni Award

Education opens doors. From her work as a researcher to her current post as president of one of the nation’s largest public universities, Mary Sue Wilson Coleman ’65 uses the tools of higher education to provide greater opportunity to all.

Coleman spent two decades as a distinguished researcher and professor in biochemistry. She studied the immune system and malignancies, and wrote more than 75 articles for scientific and academic journals.

After serving for several years in administrative roles, she was named president of the University of Iowa in 1995. During her tenure, she boosted research funding to more than $300 million. In 2000, she was named one of the 50 most influential Iowans.

In 2002, she became president of the University of Michigan. While there, she has been an outspoken supporter of affirmative action in education. She has also been instrumental in the groundbreaking partnership between the university and Google. The partnership will allow the public to do online text searches of every book in the school’s 7-million volume library.

Coleman has held a range of other influential roles, including work on scientific review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. She has also served as a trustee for both the Knight and Ford Foundations.

For her efforts to provide greater access to knowledge and education, Grinnell is proud to recognize Mary Sue Wilson Coleman ’65.