What’s New

  • 📖 We are hosting a panel discussion and book launch for The Arts of Leading: Perspectives from the Humanities and the Liberal Arts on Monday, December 2 at 4:30 p.m. in the Kulynych Auditorium at the Porter Byrum Welcome Center. Join us as we hear from the editors of The Arts of LeadingMichael Lamb (Wake Forest University) and Ed Brooks (Oxford Character Project) along with several of the book’s contributors. You can learn more about this event here.
  • 📣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.
  • 💰The Travel for Interdisciplinary and Community Engaged Learning (TICEL) Travel Grant application is now open to faculty in the graduate and professional schools! EXTENDED DEADLINE Applications are due November 25, 2024, apply today!
  • 💻 If you are still looking to fill out your schedule for next semester, learn more about our Leadership and Character spring course offerings here.
  • 📚 Read more about the idea and purpose behind our longest-running discussion group, “What is College For?”, which will return next semester.
Program for Leadership and Character logo

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
Michael Lamb giving a presentation.

Scholars Initiation Ceremony in 2023

discussion group meeting with students


Stories From Our Program

Last week, the Program partnered with Wake Law and the Legal Writing Institute to host the Clerkship College Conference where judges and clerks alike shared their experiences with our students. The final session on “What is Needed to Flourish as a Judicial Clerk” was held in-person with a panel of lawyers and judges, including Associate Justice Tamara Barringer of the North Carolina Supreme Court and Judge Michael Robinson of the North Carolina Business Court. The panel was moderated by Marin Bennerotte, a student in our Leadership and Character in the Law Cohort.

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Next Wednesday, we are hosting a post-election event called, Living in Ambiguous Times: A Leadership and Character Open House between 1–4 PM in Starling Hall. Join us if you would like to come together with others to ponder the future, process your anxieties, or feel supported in your questioning. We will have snacks and be holding space for conversation and reflection.

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Join @wakecomm for a talk by Texas A&M Historian of Political Rhetoric, Professor of Communication and Journalism, Dr. Jennifer Mercieca on Thursday, October 24 from 5-6:15 p.m. in Pugh Auditorium.

This program is co-sponsored by Wake Forest Department of Communication, The Department of African-American Studies, The Program for Leadership and Character, The Journalism Program, The Department of History, The Department of Politics & International Affairs, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

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It’s all about how you rebound! Join us on Thursday, October 24 from 12-4 p.m. on Manchester Plaza for the Rebound From Setbacks: Academic Resources and Resilience Carnival. This event is an opportunity for students to learn about the free on-campus academic resources that are available to help you succeed. There will be games, prizes and more. We hope to see you there!

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#Community is the central thread that brings together the new and existing Leadership and Character in the Law Cohort members. This year’s new students describe just how meaningful the cohort is to them and what they look forward to experiencing alongside their fellow members as they progress through law school. #ProHumanitate

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The Lam Museum of Anthropology’s annual celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day will feature a screening of “Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya” on Sunday, October 13, at 4 p.m. at the Kulynych Auditorium in the Byrum Welcome Center. The film tells the story of a small group of Blackfeet people and their mission to establish the first wild buffalo herd on their ancestral territory since the species’ near-extinction a century ago.

The film will be followed by a discussion with National Impact Producer Candice Dalsing and CEO of Blackfeet ECO Knowledge Tyson Running Wolf. The event will end with a reception catered by Native Root. We hope to see you there!

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Come see Dr. Donovan Livingston (@dlive87) on Monday, September 23rd from 6-7 p.m. in the auditorium at the Porter Byrum Auditorium at @wfuniversity. The event, “‘I’ma put the lil homies on next’: Mixtape methodology and meaning making through hip-hop literacy,” is free and open to the public. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members are all welcome.

This event is part of the Leadership, Equity, & Education Speaker Series. It’s hosted by the EDU Student Leadership Council, and co-sponsored by the Wake Forest’s Department of Education, the Center for Literacy Education, the African American Studies Program, the Program for Leadership and Character, Wake the Arts, the Department of Music, ZSR Library, and the Humanities Institute.

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Earlier this month, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Pedagogical Design Nancy Winfrey partnered with the @wfulawschool to create a program that would welcome back our second year law students and provide them with the tools to #flourish as students and as individuals.

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Dr. Dan Henry, Assistant Teaching Professor in African American Studies, is teaching a course called Organic Leadership: Lessons from the Black Freedom Struggle. The course focuses on the history of African American philosophies of democratic citizenship and leadership. Here, Dr. Henry talks about Ida B. Wells, one of the thinkers his class is learning about this semester.

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