Kami Chavis, associate provost and law professor at Wake Forest University, has been appointed vice provost for three years, continuing her three-year stay in the provost’s office.
In addition to her three years as associate provost, Chavis, 46, has been teaching law – specifically in the realm of criminal law and criminal procedure – at Wake Forest’s law school since 2006. She founded and directs the law school’s criminal justice program and teaches a popular course called “Perspectives in Law Enforcement: Police and Prosecutorial Accountability,” an issue all the more timely, Chavis said, given ongoing calls for criminal justice reform.
“As a university administrator, I think it’s really important that I stay close to the university’s mission. And that mission is to educate students,” Chavis said. “When I’m teaching that class, it’s one of the highlights of my day.”
In her new and expanded role, Chavis – a North Carolina native – will continue to oversee approximately nine different offices at the university, such as the Office of Online Education, the Center for Advancement of Teaching and the Office of Civic and Community Engagement.
Dr. Rogan Kersh, provost at Wake Forest University got to know Chavis early into his tenure as the school’s chief academic officer.
“She’d already been here in the law school. And as I arrived, a lot of folks told me to seek her out as a real voice of wisdom in what was happening in and across the law school as well as the university more broadly,” he said. “I found her informal counsel very valuable from the start of my time as provost, and, when the associate provost for academic affairs job came open, I was delighted she responded to the call and all the more delighted she’s agreed to become vice provost.”
Chavis also manages certain initiatives at Wake Forest and serves as co-chair of the steering committee of the school’s “Slavery, Race and Memory Project.”
