Wendy Hensel Named President of the University of Hawai’i System

Wendy Hensel has been named president of the University of Hawai’i, a 10-campus system and the state’s only provider for public higher education. She will assume her presidency in January 2025.

According to the United States Department of Education’s most recent data from 2022, the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa – the system’s flagship campus – enrolls roughly 14,200 undergraduate and 4,900 graduate students. Women represent about 60 percent of the undergraduate student body.

President Hensel comes to her new role from the City University of New York, where she has served as executive vice chancellor and university provost for the past two years. She previously held several academic and administrative leadership roles at Georgia State University, including dean of the College of Law and senior vice president of academic affairs and provost. She has also taught as a professor of law for nearly three decades. Prior to her career in higher education, she served as a judicial clerk and practicing lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia.

“There is one thing that stands out as I have gone through this process and spoken to literally hundreds of people, and that is how important the University of Hawaiʻi is to the state and the people of Hawaiʻi, especially the faculty, staff and administrators who are so committed to its mission,” said President Hensel. “I humbly accept this position knowing that I have to lead by example and that I need everyone’s support to do everything possible to make sure UH is the institution of higher education that Hawaiʻi needs and deserves.”

President Hensel is an honors graduate of Michigan State University, where she majored in American public affairs. She earned her juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.