Beverly Wendland

In July 2026, Beverly Wendland became the provost and vice president for academic affairs at West Virginia University. The University’s provost administers all academic affairs, providing oversight for deans, academic programs, student support services, curriculum development, faculty engagement and recruitment, academic budgets, institutional data and accreditation.

An accomplished scholar and academic leader with wide-ranging higher education experience, Wendland is a nationally recognized cell biologist who has served as a faculty member, department chair, dean, and provost during her extensive career in higher education. She has also engaged in direct work with large academic medical centers.

Wendland most recently served as senior advisor to the chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, following a successful five-year term in the role of provost and executive vice chancellor.

Under her leadership, Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) — a private research university — made significant strides in academic excellence, research innovation and community engagement while implementing a 10-year strategic plan, which included the creation of the Bursky School of Public Health.

Wendland also served on the Board of Directors for the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis — the affiliated teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine — which U.S. News & World Report ranked the top hospital in Missouri.

Prior to being hired at Washington University in St. Louis in 2020, Wendland served for five years as the James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

She had previously been a member of the Johns Hopkins faculty since 1998 and was the chair of the Department of Biology from 2009 to 2014.

Wendland is a first-generation college graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and a doctoral degree in neurosciences from Stanford University.

Her research focus on the molecular mechanisms of endocytosis using yeast as a model system contributes to the understanding of fundamental cellular processes that underlie heart disease, cancer, and other health issues.