Dr. Susan R. Wente, Vanderbilt provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, will be Wake Forest University’s next president.
Dr. Susan R. WenteJoining Vanderbilt in 2002 as chair of Cell and Developmental Biology, Wente spent 19 years at Vanderbilt, becoming the first woman to serve as the school’s provost and the first woman to lead it. She served as interim chancellor from August 15, 2019, through June 30, 2020.
She will also be the first woman to serve as Wake Forest’s president.
Wente led Vanderbilt’s COVID-19 response and Return to Campus plan. She also led the implementation of the school’s academic strategic plan and launched Vanderbilt’s Office for Inclusive Excellence and the Russell G. Hamilton scholarships for graduate education.
Wente holds a bachelor of science in biochemistry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. She was also a post-doctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University.
