Professor Wendy M. Purcell, PhD FRSA Wendy’s purpose lies in transforming lives through education and research in pursuit of social equity, the knowledge economy and sustainable development. She is a full Professor with Rutgers University Biomedical and Health Sciences, joining the university in Fall 2022 from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she was an Academic Research Scholar 2016-2022. She remains with Harvard University as Lead Faculty Instructor for ‘Sustainable Tourism’ with Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Division of Continuing Education and Affiliate Research Scientist with SHINE Human Flourishing Program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Wendy is also a Visiting Professor with University College London Global Business School for Health and leads the MBA Health module in change management.
Wendy is Emeritus Professor of Biomedicine and was President of a UK university (2007-2015) leading the university to be among the top 1% of world universities and first ‘green’ UK university. She was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Medal for Excellence in Higher Education. She is a Council Member of the United Nations University, Governing Board Member EELISA European University and Member of the American Association of Universities and Colleges.
Wendy is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Merits, an international journal focused on contemporary research issues related to enabling people at work to thrive and is editing a Special Issue on ‘People – The Next Sustainability Frontier’ now open. She is also Series Editor for a suite of 17-book on ‘Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals’ for Emerald Publishing. Her most recent book ‘The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sustainability in Higher Education’ was published in February 2023.
