Reflecting on the Teacher-Scholar Roots of Leadership

In the months since announcing that my presidential tenure will conclude at the end of this coming June, I have often found myself in moments of reflection. Transitions invite us to look back, and some have asked about the path that led me to University leadership. Serving as Wake Forest’s president, and prior to that as interim Chancellor and Provost at Vanderbilt University, has been a profound privilege. And, yet, the foundation of my work has always been the life of an academic. Before I was an administrator, I was – and remain –  a teacher-scholar.

This identity as an educator and a researcher has not only shaped how I lead but also the priorities that have guided my presidency. I was reminded of this recently during a session of the President’s Leadership Series, an annual event led by our undergraduate Student Government. I was seated with a group of student leaders, and one student asked me which skills have most shaped and defined my leadership style.

As I shared with them, the abilities I rely on every day—collaboration, teamwork, relationship building, mentoring, analytical thinking, problem-solving, a deep focus on outcomes and impact, and … communication … to name a few — were not learned in boardrooms. They were forged in the classrooms and laboratories where I spent decades – first as a student, and later as a researcher, teacher, and mentor. The rigor of the scientific method and the collaborative spirit of academic discovery continue to shape how I approach leadership today. 

Across these past five years, one commitment has remained constant: strengthening the academic core of Wake Forest. From faculty hiring and research investment to new academic programs and spaces for teaching and discovery, our focus has been clear. I believe the vitality –  the heartbeat – of Wake Forest depends on the strength of our scholarly community. Our identity rests on an unwavering commitment to discovery, exceptional teaching, and pathbreaking scholarship and creative expression at every level and across disciplines. Even in a challenging national landscape for higher education, our community has remained steadfast in advancing that mission. Because of the work we have done together across the University, and the incredible momentum we have built, I remain profoundly optimistic about the future of Wake Forest.

In 2021, as we emerged from COVID and its impacts on every aspect of our day-to-day academic endeavors, we recognized the opportunity to look ahead with attention and discernment.  As a community, we set out to answer a fundamental question: What is expected of a great university today? And I launched the Strategic Framework process to answer it together.   

In the Framework process,  our community chose to lean into our role as a catalyst for good—focusing on learning and discovery, access and opportunity, and innovation and society. Importantly, the Framework was shaped through radical collaboration, and ensuring that our priorities reflected the collective wisdom of the collective University. 

Today, that Framework– “Framing Our Future” –  continues to guide how we invest in academic excellence. It is a living document that outlines who we are and who we aspire to be: a community defined by learning, inquiry, and partnerships. Guided by this vision, we have strengthened and invested in areas of academic distinction across the University, including the Neuroscience and Society initiative, which features exciting new collaborations like the NeuroArts; deepened our commitment to environment and sustainability scholarship with the growth of the Andrew Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability; and we have expanded enterprise-wide investments in Leadership and Character, positioning Wake Forest to be at the forefront of the national conversation about how to best educate leaders of courage and integrity. 

Our commitment to excellence is also reflected in the physical infrastructure and academic leadership for our campuses. We have invested at least $21.2 million to date into revitalizing our academic spaces. This includes a concerted effort we launched in 2022 to ensure that every year our renewal resources are focused on new technology and updates for our teaching and learning spaces, as well as building out new research and teaching spaces in Wake Downtown and acquiring new research space for the Center for Nanotechnology. 

In other efforts, the second campus of the School of Medicine opened in Charlotte opened in July 2025, and this coming summer, the Schools of Business and Professional Studies activities in Charlotte will join Medicine with new space at the Pearl, a $2.9 million investment. And this coming summer, we will celebrate the reopening of Alumni Hall, which when complete represents a $24 million investment in a vibrant new academic hub for our Education, Philosophy, and Computer Science departments, as well as our Program for Entrepreneurship. These new and reimagined spaces embody the interdisciplinary spirit and innovation that will carry Wake Forest forward into its third century.

Since 2022, we have also welcomed and retained seven outstanding deans to lead our College, Schools and Library, each bringing invaluable perspectives to our scholarly mission. Their leadership and commitment to radical collaboration will be essential to ensuring Wake Forest continues to grow our strengths and leverage our unique disciplinary strengths to the fullest extent, in service to outstanding teaching, research, scholarship and creative work.  

Strengthening the academic core of Wake Forest has also meant doing more to tell the story of the remarkable work taking place here. I have been – and remain – committed to amplifying the impacts of our research and creative endeavors, in and beyond the classrooms and labs of our campuses. Through 20 conversations with faculty on their scholarship and teaching, the Walk with Wente video series reveals one of the core truths of what makes Wake Forest distinctive – that which we know but have sometimes neglected to enthusiastically acknowledge: our faculty do not choose between exceptional teaching and pathbreaking research. They do both. And both are better for it. 

This month, Wake Forest sponsored the “Leadership for Tomorrow” track at SXSW EDU. Known for celebrating creativity and innovation, SXSW was an enormously impactful avenue for us to share the stories of the innovative research happening here. Staff enjoyed connecting with alumni and meeting educators, innovators and partners from across the country to share our newest storytelling campaign, “Wake Up,” which is our celebration of a better future made possible by Wake Forest’s research, thought leadership and alumni accomplishments. The ‘Wake Up’ campaign is more than just a storytelling effort; it is a reflection of the vibrant, interdisciplinary energy I see on our campus every day. 

It has been the honor of my career to serve a community that values leadership rooted in the teacher-scholar ideal and an unwavering commitment to providing a transformative education.  And as I reflect, I am filled with gratitude for the students, faculty, and staff who have walked this path with me. Our work together has ensured that the scholarly heartbeat of Wake Forest will not only continue to drive our mission, but is primed to become truly impossible to ignore.