Wendell Eric Pritchett is an American legal scholar and academic. He is currently the James S. Riepe Presidential Professor of Law and Education at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. From February to June 2022, Pritchett served as interim president of the University of Pennsylvania; he is the first Black individual to serve as the university's president.[1][2]
Pritchett previously served as Chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden (2009–2014), Interim Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (2014-2015), and Provost of the University of Pennsylvania (2017–2022).
Early life and education
Pritchett's father, also named Wendell Pritchett, was a classical pianist and public school teacher, and his mother Carolyn was a high school English teacher.[3][4] Pritchett grew up in Society Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to which his family moved in 1967, and attended Friends Select School.[3][5] He and his wife Anne Kringel, a native of Milwaukee, have two daughters.[5][4] Kringel was the director of the legal research and writing program at the University of Pennsylvania Law School for 20 years.[6]
Pritchett served as Chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden and Professor of Law and History from 2009-14.[12][13] At the time of his appointment, Pritchett became the first Black Chancellor of the university.[14]
In 2017, Pritchett was named Provost of the University of Pennsylvania; he served in the role through July 2021.[8][17]
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.[10] His first book was Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews and the Changing Face of the Ghetto (University of Chicago Press, 2002).[10][8] His second book was Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer (University of Chicago Press, 2008).[10]