DeLongpré Johnston named VP for human resources and sustainability

Wake Forest University has appointed Dedee DeLongpré Johnston as vice president for human resources and sustainability, effective October 1. In this role, she will lead the University’s talent functions, including recruitment, campus engagement, compensation and benefits, professional development, HR operations and HR information systems.

DeLongpré Johnston will continue to lead the Office of Sustainability as vice president and chief sustainability officer. She has served as interim chief human resources officer since April 2020.

“I cannot imagine a more difficult time to be a university human resources leader,” said Hof Milam, executive vice president, “but Dedee’s management style, organizational skills and knack for thinking broadly about the university have been the perfect complement to a talented, dedicated human resources team in seeing us through the last six months.”

For more than a decade, DeLongpré Johnston has led the first campus-wide Office of Sustainability. Under her leadership, the university earned a STARS Gold rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). In her previous role as director of the University of Florida’s Office of Sustainability, she was awarded the President’s Medallion for her leadership. She brings more than 20 years of nonprofit management experience, from fund and board development to organizational strategy, change management and assessment.

“In addition to the privilege of leading a very talented HR team in their core functional areas, I’m looking forward to working collaboratively with stakeholders across campus to integrate the institution’s core values into the full employee experience and to explore the ways we can foster engagement and a true sense of belonging,” said DeLongpré Johnston.

“Dedee is a natural collaborator, astute at bringing different constituencies together to solve challenges,” said José Villalba, vice president for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. “In this new role, she will leverage that philosophy and those values to represent the needs of staff and faculty. I can’t wait to support her and learn from her as we work to address issues of equity throughout campus.”

DeLongpré Johnston has worked with faculty leaders to host the first national sustainability-across-the-curriculum conference, annual sustainability workshops, and the successful “Campus as Lab” course integration offering. She has taught project-based sustainability leadership courses in the Graduate Sustainability Program, as well as in the undergraduate College.

“Dedee brings a wealth of experience as a nationally proven sustainability leader and as a Wake Forest faculty member,” said Michele Gillespie, Dean of the College. “While interim head of HR across the pandemic crisis she demonstrated a strong commitment to the professional development and wellbeing of this community at every turn.

“Along with her aptitude for timely problem solving, Dedee’s inclusive, strategic leadership approach, and her expertise in sustainability, will help Wake Forest build integrated human resources programs that will benefit all of our employees — faculty and staff alike — at all stages of their careers and serve the long-term future of the institution well.”

Provost Rogan Kersh said: “Dedee has been a constant, vital source of strategic and substantive counsel — across myriad areas of University governance — since our first meeting eight years ago. Her ability to lift our sustainability programs and practices to national visibility also testifies to her wonderful suitability for an essential University-wide role like this one.”

DeLongpré Johnston has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Master of Business Administration from the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco.