What’s New
⚖️ North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural Leadership and Character in the Law Conference, presented by the Program for Leadership and Character and the Wake Forest School of Law. The conference will also include a discussion about navigating differences, featuring current North Carolina Supreme Court Justice (and Wake Forest School of Law graduate) Phil Berger, Jr. and former justice Michael Morgan. The events will take place in Winston-Salem on March 27-28, and registration is still open.
🎟️ If you’re not attending the conference but would still like to see the keynote address from Attorney General Jackson, we’re making some seats available for the Wake Forest and Winston-Salem Community. Registration is required.
- 📚 If you are still looking to fill out your schedule for next semester, here’s a few course offerings being led by instructors associated with the Program for Leadership and Character.
- ✏️ The Program for Leadership and Character is pleased to announce the opening of four opportunities for financial support, available to WFU faculty and staff each spring. The deadline to apply (except for co-sponsorships) is April 2. Learn more and apply.
- 📣 The Educating Character Initiative is excited to launch a renewed Invitation to Community and 2025 Request for Proposals inviting U.S. colleges & universities to apply for grants.
Our Vision
To inspire, educate, and empower leaders of character at Wake Forest and at colleges and universities across the world.
Our Mission
To use innovative teaching, creative programming, and cutting-edge research to help transform the lives of students, foster an inclusive culture of leadership and character on college campuses, and catalyze a broader public conversation that places character at the center of leadership.
Get Involved
Here’s how you can become directly involved with our Program as a Wake Forest student, or as a faculty or staff member at Wake Forest and other institutions across the country:
Receive regular updates on events and happenings:
“An education that shapes the whole person is both necessary and desired in our world. The Program is vital to our ability to meet this moment and produce leaders for a better future.”
Wake Forest President Susan R. Wente
Who We Are
The Program for Leadership and Character consists of faculty and staff from a diverse group of disciplines and backgrounds who study and assess leadership and character, as well as students who take on the important and challenging work of developing their leadership and character. Our Educating Character Initiative (ECI) is creating a community of educators interested in character on campuses across the country and world.
What We Do
We help faculty at Wake Forest and beyond educate leadership and character in the classroom and across their campuses. We work directly with students through our Scholars and Ambassadors programs, as well as through courses, fellowships, discussion groups, retreats, and special events. We spark public conversations and collaborate with others across the world. And we strive to educate leadership and character in ways that reflect Wake Forest’s motto, Pro Humanitate.
How We Do It
We put character at the center of leadership and ground our Program’s initiatives in seven research-based strategies for developing character. Because character education is not a one-size-fits-all approach, we find value and strength in engaging diverse ideas and partners. And we rigorously assess outcomes to learn what works and how we can improve.
Educating Character Initiative
Learn more about grants, resources, conferences, and learning opportunities provided and curated by our ECI Scholars and staff to educate character within higher education.
Professional Schools
See our approach and impact in law, medicine, and engineering at Wake Forest and beyond.
Resources
The Program for Leadership and Character is built upon the research and scholarly work of faculty at Wake Forest and beyond. Here’s a short list of resources from faculty and staff in our Program that you may find useful as you seek to educate character in your own context.
Stories From Our Program
The Freedom Dreams Mass Meeting will be held on March 27, 2025, at 6 p.m. in @hanesgallery. This special gathering aims to unite the community around its aspirations for freedom and democracy.
The event will feature convener and moderator Dr. Claire Crawford, Assistant Professor of Political and International Affairs and the Program of African American Studies, the inspiring Albany Civil Rights Institute Freedom Singers, Rev. Andria Williamson, M.Div. `17, Associate Chaplain and Director of Chapel Programs, High Point University Chapel & Religious Life, and Rev. Joshuah Brian Campbell, Director of Worship, Music, and the Arts, Wake Forest University School of Divinity and Director of the University Gospel Choir.
Together, they will share powerful messages through music about the ongoing journey toward freedom, equality, and justice, urging the community to rally behind its collective dreams.
Happening next week! In celebration of Women’s History Month, @wfu.class is leading their OWLS (Outreach Workshop Learning Series) event in the Women’s Center on Wednesday, March 26 from 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there!
Next week, join @wakecomm for a lecture by Associate Professor of Communication at University of Missouri, Dr. Rebecca Meisenbach (‘00). This event will take place on Tuesday, March 25 at 4 p.m. in Carswell Hall (Room 208). We hope to see you there!
Speas Elementary School students spent time on campus last week with student-athletes from @wakewbb and @wakefootball. While they were here, they were given a presentation about trust and mentorship, they received a campus tour, and had lunch in The Pit with several student-athletes. Wendell Dunn, Assistant Director of Leadership and Character in Athletics, helped to organize the visit.
We asked two of the student-athletes, Malaya Cowles (‘25) and Rylie Theuerkauf (‘27) to share why this experience was meaningful to them.
We’re excited to invite you to the inaugural Leadership and Character in the Law conference coming up on March 27th-28th. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson will be our Keynote speaker, and the conference will kick off with a conversation between a current and a former NC Supreme Court Justice: Phil Berger Jr. and Michael Morgan. Visit our website for more details.
Leadership and Character Scholar Lillie Sutton uses the poem “Shoulders,” by Naomi Shihab Nye, to reflect on her experience at Wake Forest. Lillie was one of 10 @wfuniversity seniors selected to speak at the Senior Colloquium last week, which was organized by the Office of the Dean of the College.
For Black History Month, our Assistant Director of Leadership and Character in Athletics, Wendell Dunn, took players from @wakefootball and @wakewbb to Speas Elementary School to speak to students. The players talked to the students about prominent Black History leaders and role models who have impacted their lives in a meaningful way. They also led activities for the students to help foster a sense of community. One of those was a “kindness web,” where the students shared compliments and positive affirmations with one another to create a visual of the impact of supporting and uplifting the entire group. #prohumanitate
Last week, our Director of Leadership and Character in Athletics, Wendell Dunn, spoke to @wakefootball first-year players at Top Hat Wednesday. During the workshop they talked about being able to identify the skills, interests, and virtues that are meaningful to them on and off of the football field.
Dunn and two of the players, Jacob Cosby-Mosely (‘28) and Jake Ryan (‘28), shared their thoughts after completing the workshop.
Join @wfureligions for a thought-provoking public lecture by Dr. Caitlyn Olson, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Bucknell University. The talk, titled “A Matter of Orthodoxy: Islamic Theories of Belief Between Religious Studies and Philosophy,” will be held on Monday, February 3 at 5:00 pm in the ZSR Auditorium. We hope to see you there!
Last weekend, we held a retreat for our Leadership and Character Ambassadors. The retreat was an opportunity for our Ambassadors to cultivate meaningful connections, reflect on the experiences that have shaped their character, and to consider the legacies they hope to create. The participants engaged in several activities including a Lego workshop, and a poster workshop where they created digital posters to illustrate the future roles and the leaders they aspire to be.
Tomorrow join @wfu.class for an interactive workshop called, “New Year Same You: Tips for Tackling Procrastination.” This workshop will be held at 6 p.m. in the Wellbeing Center, Room A330. We hope to see you there!
Join us this semester as we reflect on the purpose of college, life, and what it means to live a good life in college and beyond. Sign up for our discussion group called “What’s the Point Anyway?” by Wednesday, January 22. You can sign up for a group by clicking the link in our bio. We hope to see you there!