Bio
Michael Lamb is the F. M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character, Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Wake Forest University. He earned a B.A. in political science from Rhodes College, a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University, and a second B.A. in philosophy and theology from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. A recipient of teaching awards from Princeton, Oxford, and Wake Forest, his interdisciplinary teaching and research focus on leadership, character, and the role of virtues in public life. He is the author of A Commonwealth of Hope: Augustine’s Political Thought and co-editor of The Arts of Leading: Perspectives from the Humanities and the Liberal Arts, Cultivating Virtue in the University and Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology and the Practices of Ordinary Life. His work has also been published in many edited volumes and academic journals, including the American Political Science Review, Review of Politics, Journal of Religious Ethics, Journal of Moral Education, and Journal of Character Education. He is also a published poet. Prior to joining Wake Forest, he helped to launch The Oxford Character Project, where he remains an Associate Fellow, and served as Dean of Leadership, Service, and Character Development for Rhodes Scholars. He is currently leading several major grants to educate leaders of character at Wake Forest and beyond, including through the Educating Character Initiative, which is catalyzing a broader community focused on character in higher education. In 2025, he received an honorary degree from Maryville College.