More about President Hensel

Wendy F. Hensel, a champion of equity and innovation in higher education, assumed the dual roles of president of the University of Hawaiʻi System and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa on January 1, 2025. As the leader of Hawaiʻi’s sole public higher education system, Hensel provides leadership and strategic direction for UH‘s 10 campuses. Serving more than 49,000 students and nearly 7,500 faculty and staff, she is committed to advancing the system’s mission, ensuring academic and operational excellence and fostering a Native Hawaiian place of learning where Indigenous value and knowledge thrive alongside global academic and research excellence.

Hensel joins UH after serving as Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost at The City University of New York (CUNY), where she oversaw academic and operational strategies across a 25-campus system with more than 230,000 students. At CUNY, she led strategic initiatives to improve student success, expand high-quality virtual degree programs and enhance workforce development by aligning academic programs with emerging job market needs. Under her leadership, CUNY implemented a systemwide transfer plan to allow seamless articulation within the same major between all community and senior colleges to improve time-to-graduation rates and reduce student debt. She also spearheaded the adoption of data analytics and artificial intelligence to modernize curricula, enhance efficiency and improve student outcomes.

Hensel’s leadership at CUNY included the development of its 2023–2030 strategic plan, crafted in collaboration with faculty, staff and administrators. She worked closely with government, community and industry leaders to forge public-private partnerships, advocate for increased access to higher education and promote the system’s strengths to external stakeholders.

Before joining CUNY, Hensel spent more than two decades at Georgia State University (GSU), the largest public university in Georgia, where she was a tenured full professor and held key leadership roles as Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College of Law. She played a critical role in guiding the institution through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring uninterrupted instruction for its 53,000 students. Her leadership contributed to GSU’s national recognition for innovation and excellence in undergraduate teaching, as well as for its commitment to broadening diversity, inclusive excellence and belonging on campus.

As a legal scholar specializing in disability law, policy and ethics, Hensel has published widely and presented extensively on these topics. She is a passionate advocate for people with disabilities and serves on the board of directors for Integrate, an organization promoting inclusive employment for professionals with autism. Her community involvement includes serving on the boards of the United Way of Greater Atlanta, Cumberland Academy of Georgia and Parent to Parent of Georgia.

Before her academic career, Hensel practiced law at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta, advising Fortune 500 companies on compliance with federal employment laws and litigating discrimination cases. She also served as a judicial clerk for Judge Orinda Evans of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Hensel was inducted as a Fellow of the American Bar Association in 2019 and maintains her professional licensure.

Hensel holds a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in American public affairs from Michigan State University, where she was a Harry S. Truman Scholar and interned at the U.S. Supreme Court. She earned her law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.