As the country’s only R1-designated HBCU, Howard University is generating cutting-edge research in the areas of health, national defense, global studies and more. That work has helped HU recruit some of the country’s top minds, including one faculty member who followed an unlikely path to become a tenured professor.
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Before he was Dr. Stanley Andrisse, professor at the Howard University College of Medicine, the Ferguson, Missouri, native was serving a ten-year prison sentence for three felony convictions. In an interview with WTVM News, he admitted to making a lot of bad decisions growing up, adding that he spent a lot of time in school detention and was arrested for the first time at age 15. His dangerous path led many to believe that he was a lost cause.
“The older people around me in the community really saw people who looked like me as deserving to be in prison,” he said. “So when you have that environment that’s telling you that this is what you’re supposed to be doing, this is what you’re capable of doing.”
Dr. Andrisse first became interested in science and medicine when he learned his father was living with Type 2 diabetes. Andrisse said that because he was incarcerated, he wasn’t able to say goodbye to his father before he passed away, but he spent his time in prison reading as much as he could about the disease.
“Something clicked. Even though I was physically caged, my mind was free, roaming inside the human cell, trying to understand disease. That spark became my purpose. I decided to live differently and honor my father’s life by pursuing science,” he told Howard’s The Dig.
Near the end of his sentence, Dr. Andrisse made a plan to continue his studies and began applying to graduate school programs around the country. Of the six schools he applied to, his only acceptance came from Saint Louis University, where he earned a Ph.D. in physiology and an MBA in finance, finishing at the top of his class. Dr. Andrisse says the opportunity to pursue higher education gave him a chance for a fresh start.
“That one ‘yes’ changed everything,” he told The Dig.
Dr. Andrisse is grateful for the opportunity he’s had to give his life a reboot and hopes that it will show others what a second chance can make possible.
“My story represents both possibility and responsibility, and it’s the culmination of years of faith, mentorship, and resilience,” he told The Dig. “But it’s bigger than me. It’s proof that redemption is real — that someone who was once written off as a ‘career criminal’ can stand in front of classrooms, lead research, and shape the next generation of scientists.”
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