Biography

UNLV President Keith E. Whitfield is an experienced university administrator and prolific scholar in the fields of psychology, health, and aging. 

A psychologist and expert on the social, psychological, and cultural factors of cognition and healthy aging, Whitfield’s current research focuses on the relationship between stress and longevity in African American families. Whitfield has authored or co-authored over 200 publications and has earned nearly $20 million in funding from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the National Science Foundation. He’s a member of the NIA’s National Advisory Council on Aging, he sits on the board of directors for the Coalition of Urban-Serving Universities, and he has served on committees for the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.  

Whitfield previously served as provost, senior vice president of academic affairs, and professor of psychology at Wayne State University in Michigan. Prior to Wayne State, he was vice provost for academic affairs at Duke University and held appointments as a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, a research professor in the Department of Geriatric Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. He also was the co-director of the Center on Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research.