News

Wake Forest University Awarded $30M Lilly Endowment Inc. Grant to Build National Capacity for Character Education

Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded Wake Forest a $30.7 million grant to support the University’s Program for Leadership and Character and create a national higher education network devoted to educating character.

Wake Forest senior Alice Hauser named Rhodes Scholar

Alice Hauser, a Leadership and Character Ambassador and a Principled Pluralism Fellow, has been awarded the Rhodes Scholarship.

Program Welcomes 15 New Student Ambassadors in 2022

The ceremony recognized students who have engaged with our Program and have been impacted by it.

‘The Good Place’ creator, Michael Schur, mixes comedy and ethics

For the evening event, about 600 people filled Brendle Hall where Schur shared stories about obsessive mouthwash swishing, a philosopher leaving his corpse to his friend and an incident with a bumper scratch gone viral. 

How Student Performers Examine the Arts’ Influence On Their Character

In a book of essays, student performers share their reflections about the arts during a time when the pandemic prevented them from performing.

Leadership and Character-Led Course Challenges Students to Creatively Solve Community Problems

Students use creative problem solving to develop bold initiatives that could be used to benefit the community.

Five Program Postdoctoral Fellows Land New Teaching Positions at Universities Across the World

They’re now taking their knowledge of leadership and character to other colleges and universities around the world.

How a Law Student Looks at Leadership and Character

As an inaugural member of the Leadership and Character Law Scholars, Cedric James found out how practicing to be an ethical leader can add so much more to the practice of law.

Three new team members to join the Program for Leadership and Character

The positions were made possible by a generous grant from the Kern Family Foundation.

“What is Wake Forest For?” Dr. Michael Lamb delivers speech at Inauguration Luncheon

“I cannot offer a definitive interpretation—that task is up to all of us, collectively,” Lamb said, “but I want to suggest there are at least five commitments—five purposes—that animate what Wake Forest is for.”

Leadership & Character Scholars get Face to Face with Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Austin Torain and Akshey Suresh asked questions about South Asian representations in media, work-life balance and how the U.S. might respond during the next pandemic.

Leadership & Character Scholar wins prestigious Goldwater Scholarship

John Billos, a sophomore from Mt. Airy, was one of two Wake Forest students to win the national scholarship.

Students Hear the Value of Being An Ally and Working Together for Environmental Justice

The Program and the Intercultural Center co-sponsored a series of speakers who showed how Indigenous communities have been integral to the important work of environmental justice.

Senior Orators Reflect On Their College Experience

Ten faculty-nominated seniors took the stage for the 2022 Senior Colloquium, reflecting on lessons learned and challenges faced as Wake Forest students. Among them were six students affiliated with the Program, each with unique thoughts to share.

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo visits Wake Forest University

The Program for Leadership and Character was part of a group that sponsored her three-day visit to campus, culminating with a poetry reading at Wait Chapel.

$8.6 million Kern Family Foundation Grant Funds Character and the Professions Programs

The grant will expand the Program’s mission to equip future leaders in medicine, law, engineering and other professions to think in holistic ways about their values and work.

How Incoming Medical Students Learn about Leadership and Character

Dr. Marcia Wofford used some of the Program’s seven strategies in her orientation for first-year students. Now, it’s leading to bigger changes at the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

More News

2021

• The Program Initiates 22 Leadership and Character Scholars
• WATCH: Visual artist Wayne Brezinka visits Wake Forest
• How Seven Women Display Leadership and Character in Athletics
• Journal Publishes Case Study of Character in the College Classroom
• Program initiates 14 Leadership and Character Ambassadors
• Leadership, Character, and Complex Calculations
• What Is Principled Pluralism? And Why Does It Matter?
• Leadership and Character Scholars get face-to-face with Malcolm Gladwell
• Flourishing Retreat Helps Connect Students With Nature
• Journal Publishes Article on Seven Strategies for Developing Character
• Ann Phelps wins award for a children’s book six years in the making
• How Iyana Trotman (’24) is already making an impact on Wake Forest’s storied debate team
• A Look at the Impact of Leadership and Character’s Grants for Faculty
• Dr. Elizabeth Whiting Pierce Receives Sustainability Award
• Ethics through Fiction and Film with the Oxford Character Project
• Program Screens “When Lambs Become Lions” Documentary with Filmmaker
• Leadership and Character Co-Sponsors “Lawyers as Leaders” Series
• Michael Lamb Interviews Angela Duckworth at KEEN National Conference
• The Program Funds Panel on Anti-Racist Pedagogy
• Michael Lamb Speaks at “Teaching Intellectual Virtues” Mini-Conference
• “Character and the Professions” Conference Draws Over 2,300 Registrants
• The Program Announces Leadership & Character Council
• Postdoctoral Fellow Accepts Position in Embedded EthiCS at Harvard
• Enneagram and the Election Series with Chris Copeland and Chelsea Yarborough
• Leadership and Character Spring 2021 Course Offerings
• Program for Leadership and Character Announces Mission Statement and Logo
• Department of Engineering and Leadership and Character Awarded $700k from Kern Family Foundation
• Lamb Receives Teaching Award from Center for the Advancement of Teaching
• Program Co-Sponsors “The Path Forward: US Environmental Leadership Beyond 2020”
• Leadership and Character Co-Sponsors “Race and the Media: A Roundtable Discussion Among Journalists”
• Leadership and Character Co-Hosts Voices of Our Generation
• Mendonça, Dykhuis, and Lamb Present at Conference of the Association for Moral Education
• “Leadership for Environmental Justice” with Brahm Ahmadi
• Defining Ethical Leadership in the Age of AI
• Dr. Michael Lamb Shares Strategies to Develop Character at NC State
• “The Respectful Dissent”: Honoring the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Lamb Gives Keynote at School of Virtue and Character in Australia
• Profiles in Leadership with Bill Taylor
• Leadership and Character Postdoctoral Fellows Teach New Courses
• An Expert Briefing for the Oxford Character Project
• Wake Forest Cited in Oxford and Harvard Leadership Course

2020 and earlier

• Franklin and Lamb Discuss Leadership and Character in Chaos and Conflict
• Leadership and Character Adds 9 New Staff Members
• Leadership and Adversity Course Features 11 Distinguished Speakers
• Program Offers Grants for Faculty and Departments
• Movie Nights with Leadership and Character
• Dr. Donovan Livingston Featured in Random House Virtual Commencement
• Call to Conversation Virtual Programming
• $1.68 million from John Templeton Foundation to Study Exemplars
• Leadership and Character Awarded $3.4 million from Lilly Endowment
• Wake Forest Magazine Fall 2019 Issue Focuses on Leadership and Character
• Program for Leadership and Character Featured in the Fabric of Character
• The Ethics of Algorithms
• Kenneth Townsend Speaks at Georgia State University College of Law
• Initiation of Inaugural Class of Leadership and Character Scholars
• Donovan Livingston Delivers Keynote Address at NC Teacher’s Conference
• Kiese Laymon in Conversation with Leadership and Character Students
• Ann Phelps Performs with Theodicy Jazz Collective at Syracuse University
• What Music Can Teach Us about Leadership and Character
• Dr. Michael Lamb Speaks at University of Tennessee
• Rotary Club Invites Michael Lamb to Speak about Leadership and Character
• Leadership and Character in the Law
• Imagining Philanthropy as Compassionate Leadership
• Michael Lamb Speaks on Hope at Princeton University
• Legacies of Leadership: Commemorating the Winston-Salem Sit-in
• Virtual Programming from Leadership and Character
• The Crucible of Character
• Raven Scott Speaks on Self-Leadership at The Calhoun School
• Enneagram Studies Project with Leadership and Character
• New Framework for Character Education in Universities
• The Program for Leadership and Characters Creates Opportunity for Student Artists and Performers
• Program Staff Wins 1st Place in Be Still Media Competition