About President Cadge
Biography
Wendy Cadge, a nationally renowned expert in contemporary American spirituality and religion, is the 10th president of Bryn Mawr College. She is leading two key initiatives focused on advancing the College’s mission and broadening its reach: developing a forward-thinking strategic vision and creating a comprehensive campus plan for the physical campus.
A Public Intellectual
A sociologist by training, President Cadge is known for her work on religion in public institutions, religious diversity, and pluralism, and as a highly respected educator, scholar, and administrator.
As a public intellectual, she has written more than one hundred scholarly and general interest articles, many in collaboration with students and colleagues across disciplines, and four books on issues related to spiritual care across settings, religion in hospitals, port chaplaincy, and Buddhism in the United States. Cadge launched the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab in 2018 to bring chaplains, educators, and social scientists into conversation about the work of chaplaincy and spiritual care.
Numerous foundations and trusts have supported her research and teaching, including the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Fetzer Institute, Henry Luce Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Lovell Foundation, Radcliffe Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research Program, Ruderman Family Foundation, Russell Berrie Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and The Charles H. Revson Foundation.
Cadge is a member of the American Sociological Association (ASA), the American Academy of Religion (AAR), and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR). She is a founder and past chair of the Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Program Unit of the AAR. She is a previous chair of the Religion Section and the Committee on Professional Ethics of the ASA.
Academic Achievements and Leadership
Her published books include “Spiritual Care: The Everyday Work of Chaplains” (Oxford University Press, 2023), “Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine” (University of Chicago Press, 2012), and “Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America” (University of Chicago Press, 2005). She is co-editor of “Introduction to Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care” (University of North Carolina Press, 2022) and “Religion on the Edge: De-Centering and Re-centering the Sociology of Religion” (Oxford University Press, 2013). With colleagues, she also authored “Chaplaincy and Seafarers: Faith at Work” (Oxford University Press, 2024).
At Brandeis University, Cadge held various leadership positions, including dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, senior associate dean for strategic initiatives, and chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality program. Her achievements there included centering the graduate student experience by rebuilding and expanding student professional development, collaborating to extend degree programs into new modalities, advancing the graduate school’s anti-racism plan, and reconnecting current students and alumni to celebrate the school’s 70th anniversary. She received the Thomas A. King Faculty Award from the Gender & Sexuality Center, the Dean of Art and Sciences Mentoring Award for Outstanding Teaching of Students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Michael Walzer '56 Award for Excellence in Teaching. She served on the Bowdoin College faculty from 2003-2006.
She received her bachelor’s degree with high honors and majors in Sociology and Anthropology, and Religion, from Swarthmore College, her master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton University, and completed two years of postdoctoral work at Harvard University.
From President Cadge
In my first year as Bryn Mawr’s president, my highest priority is to get to know the community as broadly and deeply as possible, to understand how the ways that we teach, learn, grow, and collaborate make the College such a distinctive and multilayered place.
At heart and by preparation, I am an ethnographer; I am trained to listen, watch, enter into dialogue and – most importantly – learn alongside. At the core of my academic work and leadership is a quest to understand the ways in which communities form around meaning and purpose, and the ways in which individuals engage authentically with others in the world.
In that spirit of active inquiry, I am meeting the community in myriad and wonderful ways – in small group lunches, in departmental and program gatherings, at Student Government Association and Staff Association meetings, at athletics games and matches, at alumnae/i gatherings, and at ice cream parties. Whether via conversations, emails, or surveys, I am inviting staff, faculty, and students to share their broad hopes for the College as well as the more specific things they would like to see Bryn Mawr start to do, stop doing, and continue to do. There is deep knowledge in our community; I am eager to share in it.
Concurrently, in the spirit of collaborative learning and shared experience, I have been convening opportunities for disparate parts of the College to hear from one another and to collectively understand Bryn Mawr’s relationship to the world beyond the campus. Since the fall, we have gathered as a community at a town hall, at programmed events at Coffee Hour, and at monthly lunchtime talks on current topics in higher education. Participants have brought deep interest and insightful questions, helping all of us imagine an even more vibrant Bryn Mawr experience.
In early 2025, I will share reflections on what I have learned and observed, and the opportunities for the College to shine its distinctive light even more brightly in its next chapter. I am grateful for the community’s partnership in the first year of my presidency, as we honor all that Bryn Mawr has been and begin to envision what it can become.
All Bryn Mawr community members are welcome to participate in this thought-provoking series of conversations.
Learn more about our Current Topics in Higher Education event series.
All are welcome to join the President's Office for coffee and donuts on Thursdays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in the Great Hall! Each first of the month Coffee Hour will include programming.
The President's Office launched an initiative in spring 2023 to bring visiting experts, artists, and thinkers to the Bryn Mawr campus to share their work with us. These guests help us amplify initiatives we have already launched, provide new perspectives and ideas, contribute expertise and emerging knowledge, and expand our networks to other organizations and individuals around the country working to advance inclusive excellence in higher education.
President Cadge's Website
Learn about President Cadge's research, publications, and more!