Wendell Eric Pritchett is an American lawyer, legal scholar, professor, and university administrator. He is currently the James S. Riepe Presidential Professor of Law and Education at the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

. Since February 2022, Pritchett has served as interim president of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

; he is the first Black individual to serve as the university's president. Pritchett previously served as Chancellor of

Rutgers University–Camden Rutgers University–Camden is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, New Jersey's public research university. It is located in Camden, New Jersey. Founded in 1929 as the South Jersey Law School, Rutgers–Camden began as an amalg ...

(2009–2014), Interim Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (2014-2015), and Provost of the University of Pennsylvania (2017–2022).

Biography

Pritchett's father, also named Wendell Pritchett, was a classical

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and public school teacher, and his mother Carolyn was a high school English teacher."Cover Story: Living for the City,"
''Rutgers Magazine''. Pritchett grew up in

Society Hill Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center City District dates the Free Soc ...

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to which his family moved in 1967, and attended

Friends Select School Friends Select School (FSS) is a college-preparatory, Quaker school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade located at 1651 Benjamin Franklin Parkway at the intersection of Cherry and N. 17th Streets in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wi ...

. He and his wife Anne Kringel, a native of Milwaukee, have two daughters. Kringel was the director of the legal research and writing program at the University of Pennsylvania Law School for 20 years.

Education

He earned a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University in 1986. Pritchett earned a J.D. from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

in 1991, and became a member of the Pennsylvania Bar that year. From 1991 to 1992, he worked at the law firm Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the

in 1997 under the direction of Walter Licht.

Career

For five years, from 1997 to 2002, Pritchett was an assistant professor of history at

Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates unde ...

of the City University of New York. Pritchett was a

professor from 2001 to 2009, and is the Presidential Professor of Law and Education at the school. Pritchett served as Chancellor of

and Professor of Law and History from 2009-14. At the time of his appointment, Pritchett became the first Black Chancellor of the university. In 2012, he was elected president of the

Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities The Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) is an organization mostly of U.S. universities located in metropolitan areas. CUMU was founded in 1989 by 10 university presidents gathered at Wright State University. CUMU is headquarte ...

. From 2014-2015, he served as interim dean of the

and as a presidential professor. In 2017, Pritchett was named Provost of the University of Pennsylvania; he served in the role through July 2021. Pritchett has written two books and many articles on urban history and policy, especially in the areas of housing, race relations, land use, and economic development. His first book was ''Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews and the Changing Face of the Ghetto'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002). His second book was ''Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer'' (University of Chicago Press, 2008).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritchett, Wendell Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Baruch College faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty Brown University alumni Yale Law School alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Rutgers University–Camden 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians