Jill Tiefenthaler appointed university Provost

Letter to the Wake Forest community announcing the appointment of Jill Tiefenthaler as the university’s new Provost

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students:

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Wake Forest University’s new Provost, Professor Jill Tiefenthaler. Her appointment has been unanimously recommended by the Provost Search Committee and by the Senior University Appointments Committee. I could not be more pleased with Dr. Tiefenthaler’s appointment and the opportunities for Wake Forest that it represents. She is an exceptional leader who has excelled at every dimension of academic life that she has touched.

I would like to extend sincere thanks to all who served on the search committee for the time and energy they invested in finding the right person to be Wake Forest’s new provost.

You are invited to a reception to meet Dr. Tiefenthaler at 3 p.m. today, April 23, in the atrium of Z. Smith Reynolds Library.

She comes to us from Colgate University, one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. An economist by training, she holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Duke University, and she has been at Colgate since 1991 where she is a tenured full professor in the economics department. In her time at Colgate she has been chair of the economics department (2000-2003), Director of the Upstate Institute (2004-2006), Associate Dean of the Faculty (2003-2006), and is currently Consultant to the President.

Dr. Tiefenthaler is a dynamic and innovative leader. She thinks strategically, knows how to bring people together, sees the big picture, and understands the broader world of American higher education. First and foremost, she has been a superb teacher and scholar as an economist. Her work has focused on the economics of the family and development economics. At Colgate, she has had extensive experience in strategic planning, in faculty development, enrollment management, curriculum development, faculty scholarship, and the establishment of new centers and institutes.

Additional information, including Dr. Tiefenthaler’s curriculum vitae, is available at Window on Wake Forest.

She is joining us with her husband Professor Kevin Rask, who is also an economist specializing in resource and environmental economics. They have two children: Olivia, who is eight, and Owen, who is six.

Let me say again how delighted I am to have Dr. Tiefenthaler as a senior member of our administrative team. She will bring great energy and insight to academic life at Wake Forest.

Sincerely,

Nathan O. Hatch
President