Gwen-Marie Moolenaar, Ph.D., was the keynote speaker at the 111th commencement exercises of her alma mater, College of St. Elizabeth, in New Jersey and was awarded the Doctor of Laws Honoris Causis in recognition of her outstanding achievements over a long career in higher education. Moolenaar, who received a bachelor’s of arts degree in biology from the College of St. Elizabeth, her master’s degree from Long Island University and her Ph.D. from Indiana University, is the first black female to receive a Ph.D. in neurophysiology. She completed postdoctoral studies at Cornell University Medical School.
Over the course of her 30 years in higher education, Moolenaar had a distinguished career as a tenured faculty member of the College of Medicine at Howard University, and served on various advisory and grants review committees of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke, and the National Science Foundation.
She was a member of and also served as the chair of accreditation teams of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools for several medical schools. After returning to the Virgin Islands, Moolenaar joined the University of the Virgin Islands as professor of biology, director of the Boston University Early Access to Medical School Program and provost of UVI. After retiring from UVI in 2005, she was an administrator for and later head of school for Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School on St. Thomas until 2010.
Moolenaar is the daughter of Ruth Moolenaar and the mother of Ashley-Ruth Moolenaar Bernier. Her commencement address was titled “Challenges and Choices.”