Team
Our Team
Wake Forest is a community of faculty and staff committed to educating the whole person and transforming students into leaders and citizens of character. The staff for the Program for Leadership and Character focus on advancing this work everyday.
College
Bradley Burroughs
Director of Leadership and Character in Academic, Civic, and Religious Life
Assessment
Postdoctoral Fellows
Communications and Events
Professional Schools
Kenneth Townsend
Director of Leadership and Character in the Professional Schools
Elizabeth Whiting
Director of Interdisciplinary and Engaged Learning in the Professional Schools
Nancy Winfrey
Assistant Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Professional Schools
Ananthi Al Ramiah
Director of Research and Strategic Integration in the Professional Schools
Cheraton Love
Director of the Center for Personal and Professional Development
Educating Character Initiative
Research Collaborators
Dr. Kate Allman
Executive Director of Winston-Salem TEACH
Dr. Kate Allman is the Executive Director of Winston-Salem TEACH and a Research Associate Professor in both Wake Forest University’s Department of Education and Winston-Salem State University’s Department of Education. She received her B.A. in English from Emory University, her M.Ed. in English Education from Wake Forest University, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work focuses on the social and moral development of adolescents and young adults and also examines the connections between pedagogical practice, student learning, and organizational thriving in Institutions of Higher Education. She also has specialized expertise in holistic program evaluation, grant management, and institutional accreditation. Prior to coming to Wake, she served as a faculty member and administrator at Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and Towson University, where she led numerous formative, outcome, and impact evaluation projects using a collaborative, participatory approach. At Duke University, she was awarded two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants that supported the development of teacher leaders. As the Director of Research and Assessment in the Program for Leadership and Character, Kate leads all of the college’s research activities and internal evaluation. She also serves as a Part-time Assistant Professor in the Psychology department and a Research Associate in the Education Department at Wake Forest.
Dr. Olga Pierrakos
Department Chair and Professor of Engineering
Dr. Olga Pierrakos is Founding Chair and Professor in the Department of Engineering at Wake Forest University. She earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University. She also holds an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics and a B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech. With Dr. Michael Lamb, she is the Co-Principal Investigator of a grant focused on integrating character into engineering funded by the Kern Family Foundation as part of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN). Before coming to Wake Forest, Dr. Pierrakos served as Program Director of the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she managed a $100 million portfolio to advance STEM education in colleges and universities. She was also a founding faculty member of the Engineering Department at James Madison University. Her research focuses on engineering education, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering in sustainable energy systems.
Dr. Michael Gross
Associate Professor of Engineering
Dr. Michael Gross is Associate Professor of Engineering, a founding faculty member of the undergraduate Department of Engineering, and the David and Leila Farr Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest University. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Bucknell University. Gross researches fuel cells, materials processing, and gas adsorption calorimetry, as well as student motivation. His motivation work focuses on activity-level, or situational, student motivation in STEM courses with the goal of directly applying motivation theory and empirical research findings to practical course design. His teaching areas include Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Thinking and Practice, Engineering Measurement and Analysis, and Capstone. He has received the prestigious National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program Award, the Wake Forest University Research Award for Excellence, and the Wake Forest University Innovative Teaching Award. He has worked closely with the Program for Leadership and Character to design and integrate character modules into the Engineering curriculum and train faculty on how to teach character to aspiring engineers.
Elise Murray Dykhuis
Research and Assessment Consultant
Elise Murray Dykhuis is an assistant professor in the character integration advisory group at the United States Military Academy, and a Research and Assessment Consultant in the Program for Leadership and Character. She received her B.A. in Psychology and German Language/Literature at the University of Notre Dame and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University. Her research focuses broadly on individual pathways for character development among college students, and she spent much of her doctoral studies examining the aspects of person-centric, longitudinal models of intellectual humility among United States Military Academy cadets. She has a particular interest in using complex statistical modeling to examine these pathways and further honed these skills as a junior fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. She has published on the topic of character in college in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Positive Psychology and the Journal of Moral Education. Her work integrates the concept of character virtues with developmental theory and metatheory, on which she has written and presented in various forums. Dr. Dykhuis has also served as a statistical and survey-design consultant for various character-related projects and organizations. She strongly believes that college students are uniquely situated for immense character growth given their social, emotional, intellectual, and identity development, integrated with the vast opportunities presented by post-secondary education. As such, she sees the Program as a facilitator for life-long flourishing among future leaders of character and is excited to be part of that effort.
Dylan Brown
Research Affiliate
Dylan Brown is a Research Affiliate for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. He graduated from Wake Forest in May 2020 with a B.A. in Philosophy. He previously worked as an undergraduate research assistant for Leadership and Character and the Department of Engineering. During his junior year, Dylan was a visiting student at the University of Oxford where he focused on normative and applied ethics. Dylan’s undergraduate research in virtue and character culminated in his honors thesis, “Forgiveness and Pardon: Normative Powers to Mitigate Interpersonal Wrongdoing and Self-Harm.” Dylan is grateful to be working for the program that sparked his research interests and developed him personally during his time as a student.
Sara Etz Mendonça
Research Affiliate
Sara Etz Mendonça is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. She earned a B.A. in Romance languages and literature from the University of Chicago, an M.Ed. from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research focuses on the development of character and virtues in youth and the creation of effective character interventions. Her work has been published in edited volumes such as Developing Gratitude in Children and Adolescents and peer-reviewed academic journals including Current Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research. She has also presented her findings at multiple national and international conferences including the Society for Research in Child Development and the Association for Moral Education. Beyond her scholarly work, she is a dedicated educator who has won teaching awards from multiple middle and high schools from Illinois to Mexico to Sweden, and, most recently, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. While working in high schools, she founded programs for immigrant parents and their children to inform them about the college admissions process so that the students could continue their education by attending university. A firm believer in the connection between mind and body, she has both founded and coached various track and soccer teams in the educational institutions where she has worked.