Wake Forest University

Higher Education Institution

Program for Leadership and Character

Wake Forest established the Program for Leadership and Character (PLC) in 2017 and it encompasses research projects, fellowships, speakers, and courses. One of PLC’s most visible initiatives is the “Educating Character Initiative” (ECI)—a sub-granting program funded by the Lilly Endowment and aimed at incentivizing higher ed institutions to “embed character into curricula and culture.” ECI-funded projects frequently invoke themes of constructive dialogue, bridging differences, and intellectual humility.

Notable People

Michael Lamb

Founding director of the Program for Leadership and Character

Lamb is affiliated with the conservative Hoover Institution as a founding member of their Alliance for Civics in the Academy.

Kenneth Townsend

Executive director of the Program for Leadership and Character in the Professional Schools

Townsend is a faculty fellow with ACTA’s College Debates and Discourse Alliance, where he works to “organize and host debates that promote civil discourse.” He was a legal intern for a conservative, anti-LGBTQ, legal think tank, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Eboo Patel

Member of the Program for Leadership and Character Council

Patel is founder and president of Interfaith America. He has recorded a number of videos in partnership with Charles Koch Foundation/Stand Together Trust, beginning at least as far back as 2016. One video from 2023, in which Patel addresses “social change agents,” is titled “Society needs less critics. Here’s why.” He has also written numerous blog posts for the Koch Foundation, including this one from November 2019 and this one from November 2024.

Patel is a frequent contributor to “The Commons” section of Chronicle of Philanthropy, where he regularly writes about what he sees as the excesses of the left. (“The Commons” section of Chronicle of Philanthropy is, itself, a philanthropy-funded enterprise, supported by three foundations associated with billionaires: Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Einhorn Collaborative, and Walton Family Foundation.)

He has criticized both DEI initiatives and pro-Palestine protesters. In November 2023, he published an op-ed entitled, “Fed Up with How College Students are Behaving? Fund a Campus Pluralism Center,” with the sub-headline: “Donors frustrated with the response on college campuses to the Hamas attack on Israel should consider endowing centers that teach students how to cooperate across differences.” In a May 2024 column, he urged nonprofit leaders against “idealizing disruptive demonstrations” and against “romanticizing the campus encampments.” He also criticized protesters for “throwing a dozen issues into the vast basket of ‘intersectionality’ or ‘colonialism.’”

See also: Interfaith America.

Bill Haslam

Member of the Program for Leadership and Character Council

Haslam is a billionaire who formerly served as the Republican Governor of Tennessee. He is a trustee at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. He was an invited speaker at the 2017 summit of the heavily Koch-subsidized American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Policy that Haslam implemented as governor includes Voter ID requirements, a bill the ACLU refers to as an “LGBTQ erasure” bill, and an anti-protestor curfew that resulted in the arrest of over two dozen protestors (which the ACLU called unconstitutional).

Notable Funders

Lilly Endowment

$70 million+ (2023-2026)

Established by the Lilly family, whose fortune Forbes estimated at $1.8 billion in 2013, through gifts of stock in Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups, including American Enterprise Institute, Atlas Network, and Manhattan Institute. For reference, see Lilly’s tax filings for 2023, 2022, and 2021.

See also: Braver Angels; Interfaith America.

Kern Family Foundation

$13.6 million (2021, 2026)

Kern gives tens of millions to charter school expansion and regularly supports conservative and right-wing think tanks like American Enterprise Institute, Manhattan Institute, and Acton Institute. Their 2024 tax filing lists dozens of grants with the stated purpose of “embedding EM institutionally”; “EM” refers to the “entrepreneurial mindset” invoked on this page of Kern’s website. In 2023 and 2024, Kern made significant grants to Manhattan Institute to “support [the] steering committee for the reformation of higher education boards”; in February 2026, Manhattan institute produced this model legislation “to Reform Faculty Accountability in Higher Education” by expanding the oversight powers of university boards. For reference, see Kern Family Foundation’s tax filings for 2024, 2023, and 2022.

John Templeton Foundation

$1.68 million (2019)

Established by billionaire investor John Templeton. The foundation was led from 2015 to 2025 by his granddaughter, Heather Templeton Dill. It is now headed by the former CEO of Christianity Today, which describes itself as a “globally minded evangelical magazine.” Templeton makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing advocacy organizations such as State Policy Network and Mercatus Center, and Atlas Network (all three of which are described by Greenpeace as “Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Groups”). The foundation also has documented ties to the Koch Network. See UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Templeton’s giving.

F. M. Kirby Foundation

$900,000 to Wake Forest, much of which was for the Program for Leadership and Character (2021-2024); Amount not identified for endowing the Chair of Leadership and Character (2022)

Kirby makes significant grants to conservative and right-wing groups such as Manhattan Institute, American Enterprise Institute, and the Federalist Society, along with the anti-union advocacy group National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Refer to UNCIVIL’s June 2026 Funder Analysis for more details on Kirby’s giving.

Partnerships

BridgeUSA

Wake Forest hosts a chapter of BridgeUSA. Refer to the "BridgeUSA" entry for details about the organization's leadership and funders.

Campus Policy Context

On April 30, 2024, students affiliated with Free Palestine WFU established an encampment outside Wait Chapel. Their demands included disclosure of Wake Forest’s investments, divestment from companies that financially supported Israel, and an end to the university’s Israel study-abroad program. The next morning, administrators and protesters reached a written agreement that allowed demonstrations to continue under specified conditions and provided for continuing meetings between student organizers and administrators. University leaders described the agreement as reflecting Wake Forest’s “deep commitment to dialogue and civil discourse.” Two days later, the university ordered the encampment dismantled, saying demonstrators had violated the agreement and that the situation had become unsafe and disruptive.

In August 2024, Wake Forest introduced a policy requiring campus demonstrators to comply with university officials requests for “individuals wearing masks to temporarily remove them for identification purposes.” (Demonstrator face-covering restrictions have been promoted by conservative and right-wing groups such as ACTA, The Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, and the Trump administration, as well as Israel advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League; by contrast, representatives of the ACLU and its New York chapter have argued that peaceful protesters may wear masks as protection from surveillance and doxxing—and similar concerns about restrictions on protesters’ use of masks have been raised by the U.N. Human Rights Committee, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.)