Morehouse College president shares how Chapel Hill shaped him

When F. DuBois Bowman ’00 (Ph.D.) delivered the keynote address at the 2026 Doctoral Hooding ceremony, he brought the perspectives of college president, biostatistician, public health leader and Tar Heel.

Bowman, who earned his doctorate in biostatistics from Carolina in 2000, is the 13th president of Morehouse College. He built a career spanning statistical research, neuroscience, public health leadership and institutional transformation — a path shaped by his time as a graduate student at Carolina.

“Returning to campus always brings back really fond memories of a wonderful time in my life and a terrific graduate school experience,” Bowman told the graduates. “Carolina provided exceptional training. It shaped me in ways that I am still discovering, more than two decades later.”

Bowman could have done his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, where he earned his master’s degree. He already knew the campus and the faculty. But when he visited Chapel Hill, he met faculty in the biostatistics department who were “giants in the field.” He quickly realized Carolina was where he wanted to continue his training.

That decision became foundational. At Carolina, Bowman developed deep theoretical training in biostatistics, specializing in linear models and methods for working with missing or imperfect data. He learned to make rigorous judgments with imperfect information, a lesson that would stay with him through a career spanning complex biomedical data, public health questions and institutional leadership.

Beth Mayer-Davis, dean of The Graduate School; F. DuBois Bowman, president of Morehouse College; and Kate McAnulty, senior associate dean of The Graduate School. (Kelly McDaniel/The Graduate School)

“I felt fortunate to be at a place where I could build a solid foundation and then learn my specialty from the best in the world,” he said.

He also gained experience beyond the classroom. Bowman worked part time with a contract research organization led by a faculty member in biostatistics, applying statistical theory to pharmaceutical and medical device studies. He learned habits of documentation, project management and mentorship that later shaped the way he ran research teams and guided doctoral students.

The experience, he said, gave him “the best of both worlds,” combining theory and methods in the department with real-world application.

After Carolina, Bowman joined the faculty at Emory University, where his statistical training helped him enter the emerging field of neuroimaging. He developed models for complex brain imaging data and contributed to research on Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, schizophrenia and addiction. He later held senior leadership roles at Columbia University and served as dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health before returning to Morehouse, his undergraduate alma mater, as president.

He urged Carolina’s doctoral graduates to maintain scientific rigor, create new breakthroughs and make sure technological change is guided by ethics. Their doctoral training, he told them, had prepared them for that responsibility.

“A graduate degree is proof that you have learned how to acquire expertise and how to expand knowledge,” Bowman said. “You know how to analyze, investigate, adapt, revise, infer and persist.”

Bowman’s own path shows how those capacities can unfold over time. He arrived at Carolina with interests in mathematics, statistics and health. He left with training that helped him build a research career, lead major public health institutions and now guide one of the nation’s most storied colleges.

Standing again at Carolina more than two decades later, he told the University’s newest doctoral graduates that their training has prepared them with the discipline of learning, adapting and leading when the path ahead is unclear.

“The future will often present as imperfect data, noisy, incomplete, evolving,” he said. “Your responsibility will be to exercise judgment amid the uncertainty.”

Read more about F. DuBois Bowman’s keynote address.