Cristy Guleserian to join the Program for Leadership and Character as its Executive Director in the College

The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University is excited to announce that Cristy Guleserian will become our new Executive Director in the College. Guleserian, a distinguished leader in the field of character education, will direct the Program’s efforts with undergraduate students, faculty, and staff. Reporting to Senior Executive Director Michael Lamb, Guleserian will also serve on the Program’s senior leadership team. “I am delighted to join the Wake Forest community,” says Guleserian, “I have long admired the work of the Program for Leadership and Character and am eager to extend its tremendous impact at Wake Forest and across higher education.” 

Guleserian is widely recognized as one of the leading character educators within higher education. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of Principled Innovation at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation. As a co-leader of a $25 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation, a $1.6 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, and a $1 million grant from Wake Forest’s Educating Character Initiative, where she has been an active community member, Guleserian has helped to develop and steward a principled innovation framework rooted in character that is now being extended as a “design aspiration” across one of the country’s largest public universities. With her collaborative team, she has worked closely with faculty, staff, students, and the community to integrate character into the curriculum as well as the campus culture. 

Prior to her success at ASU, Guleserian worked as Director of Social Emotional Learning and Character Development Programs at Casa Center for Positive Social Change. With expertise in  communication, emotional intelligence, and social and emotional learning, she has also served as an Interpersonal Communications Consultant for organizations in education, healthcare, business, and the nonprofit sector. 

Guleserian graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science degree in interpersonal communication. She earned a Master of Science in Management from New England College and a Master of Arts in Character Education from the University of Birmingham. She currently serves as a member of the steering committee of the Kern Partners for Character and Educational Leadership and has published articles on character in Catalyzing Character, Greater Good in Education, and Virtues & Vocations.

“We are thrilled to welcome Cristy to the team,” says Michael Lamb, the Program’s Senior Executive Director. “Cristy was one of the first leaders I met in the field, and I’ve had tremendous respect for her and her work ever since. She not only understands character but lives it. To this role she brings an extensive knowledge of character education, an incredible record of success integrating character at a major university, a highly collaborative and intentional approach to community building, and a deeply relational approach to leading a team. We are so excited about what she will contribute to our Program, to Wake Forest, and to higher education in the years ahead.”