What’s New
- 🫱🏽🫲🏾 “When I don’t feel a connection, I feel drawn to create it.” Read more about Roscoe Bell (above), a Wake Forest graduate who became an important member of our team.
- 🗣️ Destiny Hale (’27), a Leadership and Character Scholar and a member of Wake Debate, was on the team that won the ACC Debate Championship title. She was also named the tournament’s top speaker. Congratulations to Destiny and her teammate, Hanna Shakarov!
- 📚 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 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.
- 💼 We’re currently looking for a Director of Communications to join our ECI team. You can learn more and apply here.
“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
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:
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
For years, Michael Lamb has taught “Commencing Character,” a course at @wfuniversity that examines the character behind commencement speeches.
This weekend, he delivered a commencement speech of his own.
Lamb, the Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, spoke to the graduating class at @maryvillecollege in his home state of Tennessee on Saturday. His message: Err on the side of gratitude. He also focused on two virtues that gratitude can bring out: Humility and hope. “If we gratefully acknowledge those who’ve helped us along the way, we implicitly recognize that we didn’t do it all by ourselves,” he said. “When we recognize the good things in our lives and those who’ve assisted us, we can see grounds for hope and become less likely to despair.”
For one of the Center for Personal and Professional Development’s "Perspectives in Medicine" programming in March, Executive Director of @samaritanministrieswsnc Jan Kelly and Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at @wakeforestmed Lindsey Sachs spoke to our medical students about the importance of screening for social determinants of health. #ProHumanitate
We hosted our annual Pizza, Popsicles, and Prose event at Starling Hall. This was an opportunity for students to take a short study break, grab a bite to eat, and leave with a free book to read over the summer.
Last week, our Leadership and Character Ambassadors had lunch with Marybeth Wallace (‘86), a true Wake Forester and pillar in our community. Throughout their conversation, she embodied Provost Emeritus Edwin G. Wilson’s teachings, sharing her profound love for literature, learning, and life with infectious passion. This lunch was a part of the Ambassadors Exemplar Lunch Series, which is designed to deepen our inner community of Ambassadors while intentionally exploring the concept of character through engaging conversations with leaders from campus and the broader Winston-Salem community.
Earlier this year, author and New York Times columnist David Brooks spoke to a packed crowd at the @facetofacewfu Speaker Forum. Here`s what he had to say about our Program and our campus. #ProHumanitate
Brooks is a member of our Leadership and Character Council.
Leadership and Character Scholars (from left to right) Jason Zhang (‘26), Steven Cayea (‘25), and Aidan Norris (‘25) were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, which is widely regarded as the most prestigious honor society in the United States. They are pictured along with our Director of Leadership and Character in Academic, Civic, and Religious Life Bradley Burroughs (far left) and Executive Director Michael Lamb, both of whom are also members of Phi Beta Kappa.
Join @wfu.class for a pop up cafe’ with seasonal treats and conversation on Wednesday, April 23 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in front of Reynolda Hall.
CLASS is also leading their April Outreach Workshop Learning Series (OWLS) titled, Preparing for Success: Build Your Finals Study Plan on Thursday, April 24 from 6-7 p.m. in ZSR 476. Students will leave with personalized study plans for finals.
Three panelists from the inaugural Leadership and Character in the Law Conference reflect on the themes and panels that they found interesting. #law #prohumanitate
Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy and Babel: An Arcane History, Rebecca F. Kuang, will be coming to campus this week! She will discuss themes about the Asian diaspora, Japan’s war crimes and colonization, the nuances of drug consumption, the weaponization of Christianity, and the spiritual perception of the universe. This event will take place on Friday, April 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Pugh Auditorium. See you there!
Is it valuable to have a job you enjoy? To work in public service? To be open to changing your grand plans? NC Attorney General @jeffjacksonnc touched on those topics during his keynote address to our inaugural Leadership and Character in the Law Conference last week. You can find a recap and a video of the full speech and Q&A at the link in our bio.
Last week, our Class of 2026 Leadership and Character Scholars organized a Vocation Panel. The panelists (from left to right) included our Director of Programming Ann Phelps, Executive Director Michael Lamb, and Associate Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs Julia Jackson-Newsom. They spoke about discovering their own vocations, finding meaningful work that aligns with personal beliefs and passions, and provided guidance for students who are exploring potential career paths.
Thank you to everyone who participated in and attended the inaugural Leadership and Character in the Law Conference last week. On Friday, more than 20 panelists discussed several nuanced methods of educating character, creating professional identity, and promoting wellbeing to our future lawyer leaders. Many thanks to @wfulawschool and the @the_aals for their help in organizing this conference.