Walk with Wente

At Wake Forest, we celebrate faculty who are both outstanding teachers and brilliant scholars.

To celebrate our community of inquiry, President Wente invites faculty members to share their contributions and insights with the Wake Forest community by joining her on a “Walk with Wente,” a signature video series.

– Episode Archive –

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  Walk with Wente: Susan R. Wente with Stephanie Ruhle
  For the final episode of Walk with Wente, the tables are turned: MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle walks and talks with President Wente, who shares why she chose Wake Forest and her call to lead a university where she felt she could have an impact. “When I looked at Wake Forest and all of its potential, I could see where I could bring my background and experience, and we could do great things together.”
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  Walk with Wente: Jay Curley
  President Susan R. Wente walks and talks with art history professor Jay Curley about how the study of art is at the center of many different disciplines. From how the brain makes meaning of art to sustained looking to visual literacy skills to art analysis, his students learn how art is integrated into the human experience.
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  Walk with Wente: José Luis Venegas, Ph.D.
  President Wente walks and talks with Professor of Spanish José Luis Venegas about how history inhabits the present, who gets to tell stories, what those stories mean and who gets left out. He encourages students to look at the big questions and think about those questions across cultures and languages.
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  Walk with Wente: Tao Ma
  President Wente walks and talks with Dr. Tao Ma, professor of internal medicine, about his neuroscience research on the molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease and Down Syndrome. His goal: finding a cure. “The future is exciting and bright,” Ma said. Students – graduate students and undergraduates – are a key part of his research. “Many times, people think of science as just one person doing it alone…These days, especially for biomedical research, it’s really teamwork.”
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  Walk with Wente: Patricia Dos Santos
  President Wente walks and talks with Professor of Chemistry Patricia Dos Santos about biochemistry, enzymes and current research that could help develop better technologies for natural fertilizers to mitigate the environmental damage caused by artificial fertilizers. “Enzymes are present in all aspects of metabolism and can help us understand human disease and nitrogen fixation in plants,” Dos Santos said. She has seen many of her students go on to graduate school and successful research careers. “As faculty, we are forever learners,” she said. “It is a privilege to be a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students.”
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  Walk with Wente: Errin Fulp, PhD
  President Wente walks and talks with Errin Fulp, professor of computer science, about his research on computer network systems and what ant colonies can teach us about cybersecurity. “We’d like to have that same sort of resilience, adaptiveness and self-healing in networks,” Fulp said. He encourages his students to take courses outside of computer science and think about how they can integrate ideas from other disciplines to solve complex problems. “Computer science is a field that really touches every aspect of our lives.”
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  Walk with Wente: Mark Curtis
  President Wente walks and talks with Mark Curtis, Reynolds Professor of Economics and Chair of the Economics Department, about the challenges of designing policies that both address environmental outcomes and promote economic growth. He shares how his experience working with a non-profit providing microcredit in Peru shaped his career and why he is so passionate about engaging students in current issues. Curtis said, “The biggest impact we have is on the students we are teaching and motivating [them] to go on and make a difference in the world.”
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  Walk with Wente: Kyana Young
  President Wente walks and talks with associate professor Kyana Young about engineering research, hands-on learning and how her students are making meaningful contributions to community projects focused on water quality. Dr. Young said: “As engineers, it is our responsibility not just to provide the technical solution, but also to consider the ethical components.”
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  Walk with Wente: Lina Benabdallah
  President Wente walks and talks with Lina Benabdallah about China’s rise as a superpower, its influence in Africa and what that means for international relations. Dr. Benabdallah challenges her students to think beyond stereotypes about Africa and says she likes to keep an “open door between research and teaching.”
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  Walk with Wente: Ken Kishida, PhD
  President Wente walks and talks with Dr. Kishida about how the brain works and his research focused on big questions about consciousness and choice. They discuss his collaborations with both neurosurgeons and humanities faculty… and his love for the movie The Matrix.
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  Walk with Wente: Oana Jurchescu, PhD
  President Wente walks and talks with Dr. Jurchescu about flexible electronics and how they will change the way we interact with technology and improve our lives. They discuss her love of experimental physics research and her love of teaching. She wants her students to “approach every problem in life with the mind of a scientist.”
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  Walk with Wente: Liz Gandolfo
  President Wente walks and talks with Liz Gandolfo, Associate Professor of Catholic and Latin American Studies in the School of Divinity, about how people of faith respond to major challenges in the world. Dr. Gandolfo’s teaching and research place Christian theology in conversation with human responses to vulnerability, suffering, violence and oppression. They discuss student engagement and how faculty perspectives from various departments enrich her classroom discussions.
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  Walk with Wente: Amol M. Joshi
  President Wente walks and talks with Amol Joshi, Professor in the School of Business, about his work in finding ethical ways to use technology to solve interdisciplinary problems. They discuss his background with artificial intelligence and how he sees AI relating to Pro Humanitate, how literature inspired his career and how he teaches failure as a key to success through experiential learning.
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  Walk with Wente: Nina Lucas
  President Wente walks and talks with Nina Lucas, Professor of Dance, about how combining dance and academics is a win-win for students at Wake Forest. They discuss teaching students how to connect something in their lives with dance, the benefits of dance as a communication tool, and the need to stay authentic and explore.
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  Walk with Wente: Kevin Jung, PhD
  President Wente walks and talks with Kevin Jung, Professor of Theological Ethics and Moral Philosophy, about how his work addresses big questions about finding reality, the meaning of life and how one should live their lives. They discuss how students must learn about moral interdependence and self-deception if they are going to help others and why Jung loves challenging questions from students. 
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  Walk with Wente: Jennifer Greiman, PhD
  President Wente walks and talks with Greiman about how 18th- and 19th-century American literature can inform our approach to today’s issues, especially about democracy. They discuss the impact of Wake Forest’s Humanities Institute on interdisciplinary scholarship and how liberal arts classes build upon each other. Greiman describes how she encourages students to step outside the things they know and then what she learns from them when they do.
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  Walk with Wente: Erin Henslee
  President Wente walks and talks with Henslee about her cell research and her collaborations across departments and schools. They discuss the importance of the “liberal arts engineer” at Wake Forest and Henslee’s belief in both the philosophy of yes and the fearless pursuit of knowledge.
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  Walk with Wente: Keith Robinson
  President Wente walks and talks with Robinson about his work at the intersection of technology and law. They discuss the ability for lawyers to help in the design process, why radical collaboration is so important and a potentially positive impact of AI.
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  Walk with Wente: Christian Waugh, PhD
  President Wente walks and talks with Waugh about his work in using positive emotions to regulate stress. They discuss the impact of major events, like 9/11 and COVID, on his work, plus his enthusiasm for doing research with his students and then taking that research to the public.
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  Walk with Wente: Kristen Beavers, PhD
  President Wente walks and talks with Beavers about her work in preventative health, her passion for being a mentor and other topics.