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Dr. Cadge stood out in an expansive field of remarkably talented candidates. Her life and work beautifully align with ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø’s mission and aspirations. She is a distinguished and innovative scholar, an accomplished academic administrator, an award-winning teacher, and an innately inclusive and feminist leader. She shares ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø’s core belief in the transformative power of liberal arts education and in the academic richness and synergy of our rigorous undergraduate and graduate programs. - Cynthia Archer '75, Chair, Board of Trustees, April 4, 2024

More about Wendy Cadge

Wendy Cadge is the 10^th president of ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø and a nationally renowned expert in contemporary American spirituality and religion. Cadge previously served as the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis University. She received her bachelor’s degree with high honors and majors in Sociology and Anthropology, and Religion, from Swarthmore College, and her master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton University.

At Brandeis, her achievements included centering the graduate student experience by rebuilding and expanding student professional development, collaborating to extend degree programs into new modalities, advancing the graduate school’s anti-racism plan, and reconnecting current students and alumni to celebrate the school’s 70th anniversary. She received the Thomas A. King Faculty Award from the Gender & Sexuality Center, the Dean of Art and Sciences Mentoring Award for Outstanding Teaching of Students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Michael Walzer '56 Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also served as the Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, led the Division of Social Sciences, and chaired the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Program. She served on the faculty at Bowdoin College from 2003-2006.

A sociologist by training, President Cadge is known for her work on religion in public institutions, religious diversity, and pluralism, and as a highly respected educator, scholar, and administrator. A public intellectual, she has written more than one hundred scholarly and general interest articles, many in collaboration with students and colleagues across disciplines, and three books on issues related to spiritual care across settings, religion in hospitals, and Buddhism in the United States. Cadge launched the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab in 2018 to advance the work of chaplains in providing innovative spiritual care and frequently works with the media and community partners.

Her research and teaching have been supported by numerous foundations and trusts, including the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Fetzer Institute, Henry Luce Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Lovell Foundation, Radcliffe Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research Program, Ruderman Family Foundation, Russell Berrie Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and The Charles H. Revson Foundation.

Cadge is a member of the American Sociological Association (ASA), the American Academy of Religion (AAR), and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR). She is a founder and past chair of the Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Program Unit of the AAR. She is a previous chair of the Religion Section and the Committee on Professional Ethics of the ASA. Her published books include Spiritual Care: The Everyday Work of Chaplains, Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine, and Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America. She is co-editor of Introduction to Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care and Religion on the Edge: De-Centering and Re-centering the Sociology of Religion.