What’s New
- 🖌️ Leadership and Character Artist-in-Residence, Dr. Pádraig Ó Tuama will give a public talk on “Virtue and Verse: What Poetry Can Teach Us about Character” on Monday, April 20 at 5:30 p.m. in Kulynych Auditorium (Porter Byrum Welcome Center). You can claim your free ticket here or get in by showing your Wake Forest ID.
- 🎤 Join us on Thursday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m. in Worrell Professional Center (WPC 1312) for an event called Bringing Ben Home. This moderated discussion will feature Benjamin Spencer, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, and Wake Forest Law Professor Mark Rabil as they explore themes of law, justice, and the excellences of character that make advocacy a force for good rather than ill. You can learn more about this event here.
- Today is the Deacs Day of Giving, and we’re happy to be participating in The Dingledine Challenge, generously established by Life Trustee Tom Dingledine (MBA ’78). Learn more about how to amplify your donation here.
- ⛳ The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University and the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation have announced a partnership to promote leadership and character through golf. The initiative will help young golfers and Demon Deacon student-athletes live a life well played.
- 💻 Applications are now open for the 2026 Leadership and Character Course Develop and Redesign Workshop. Apply and learn more about other opportunities for Wake Forest faculty and staff here.
- 💼 We’re hiring! We have six openings. You can learn more and apply here.
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.
