Photograph of Dr. Susan R. Wente with Wait Chapel in the background
Friday, October 1
7:00 PM
Manchester Plaza

University President Dr. Susan R. Wente will welcome families to campus prior to the beginning of the Night of Student Entertainment.

About Dr. Susan R. Wente

Dr. Susan R. Wente, a renowned biomedical scientist and visionary higher education leader, became Wake Forest University’s 14th president on July 1, 2021. In addition to serving as president, Dr. Wente is also a Distinguished University Professor of Biology and Biochemistry.

Dr. Wente came to Wake Forest from Vanderbilt University where she served as Vanderbilt’s provost and vice chancellor for the past seven years. From August 2019 to June 2020, she took on the additional responsibility of serving as interim chancellor. At Vanderbilt, she advanced the excellence of academic programs and guided the university’s response to the pandemic.

Dr. Wente has been widely praised for her bold and engaged leadership. She created Vanderbilt’s Office of Inclusive Excellence and led efforts to launch a new structure for the university and medical center’s academic relationship. She also oversaw innovative initiatives to enhance the undergraduate experience and elevate the arts and humanities.

Throughout her time as an administrator, Dr. Wente has maintained a commitment to groundbreaking research, personally mentoring dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the Wente lab.

Dr. Wente earned a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from the University of Iowa and her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. She was a postdoctoral fellow at both the Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

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