WFU appoints new professor of leadership

The faculty position was established in collaboration with the Greensboro-based Center for Creative Leadership to further encourage and educate undergraduates as leaders.

Legerton will teach two undergraduate courses each semester. The courses will focus on theory and practice of leadership-including self-awareness and assessment, risk-taking, visioning, conflict management and teamwork-to prepare students to become effective leaders.

“Wake Forest is committed to preparing our students from an ethical perspective to assume positions of civic responsibility and leadership in their adult lives,” said Wake Forest University President Thomas K. Hearn Jr. “By collaborating with the Center for Creative Leadership, our students will have access to some of the leading theory and practice in the field of leadership development.”

The center, known for its leadership training programs and leadership research, views the professorship as a natural extension of its work.

“Skilled leaders are in great demand in every field, in every organization and in every community. The visiting professorship at Wake Forest is a unique opportunity for the center to connect with talented, emerging leaders,” said John R. Alexander, president of the Center for Creative Leadership.

Before joining the center in 1988, Legerton was an independent consultant in education and management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the College of William and Mary and a master of divinity degree from Yale University. She served as a Presbyterian minister and was a campus minister at the University of Virginia.

A pioneer in leadership development, the Center for Creative Leadership is a nonprofit educational institution founded in 1970 by the Smith Richardson Foundation Inc. The center conducts research, produces publications and provides a broad variety of educational programs and products to leaders and organizations in the public, corporate, educational and nonprofit sectors.