Wendy F. Hensel, a champion of equity and innovation in higher education, assumed the role of University of Hawaiʻi President on January 1, 2025. Hensel joins UH after serving as Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost at The City University of New York (CUNY), where she led strategic initiatives to improve student success, expand high-quality virtual degree programs, and enhance workforce development by aligning academic programs with emerging job market needs. Under her leadership, CUNY implemented a systemwide transfer plan to improve time-to-graduation rates and reduce student debt. She also spearheaded the adoption of data analytics and artificial intelligence to modernize curricula, enhance efficiency, and improve student outcomes.

Before joining CUNY, Hensel spent more than two decades at Georgia State University (GSU), where she guided the institution through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring uninterrupted instruction for its 53,000 students. Her leadership contributed to GSU’s national recognition for innovation and excellence in undergraduate teaching, and its commitment to broadening diversity, inclusive excellence and belonging on campus.

As a legal scholar specializing in disability law, policy, and ethics, Hensel has published widely and presented extensively. A passionate advocate for people with disabilities, she serves on the board of directors for Integrate, an organization promoting inclusive employment for professionals with autism. Before her academic career, Hensel practiced law at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta and served as a judicial clerk for Judge Orinda Evans, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia. Inducted as a Fellow of the American Bar Association in 2019, she maintains her professional licensure.

Hensel holds a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in American public affairs from Michigan State University, where she was a Harry S. Truman Scholar and interned at the U.S. Supreme Court. She earned her law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.