Elizabeth (Libby) Wentz serves as Temple University’s senior vice president and provost. As the university’s chief academic officer, she works closely with President Fry, faculty, and university leadership to advance Temple’s mission and strategic priorities. Wentz oversees a broad academic enterprise that includes Temple’s 17 schools and colleges, multiple domestic and international campuses, and the divisions that support academic affairs, faculty affairs, student success, global engagement, and strategic planning.
A nationally respected higher education leader, Wentz brings more than three decades of experience in academic leadership. Prior to joining Temple, she served as vice provost and dean of the Graduate College at Arizona State University (ASU), where she oversaw graduate education, academic planning, faculty development, and student success initiatives. During her tenure, graduate enrollment grew, student funding increased, and innovative pathways were created to expand access to education.
Throughout her career, Wentz has focused on creating environments that allow students, faculty and institutions to thrive. As dean of social sciences at ASU, she led a division that included nine academic schools and 14 research centers. She was instrumental in securing and implementing a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant designed to strengthen faculty success and institutional effectiveness. She also contributed to the planning and launch of ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Engineering.
A strong advocate for community-engaged scholarship, Wentz was the founding director of the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience, an initiative supported by a $15 million investment from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. The program brings together universities, local governments, community organizations, and industry partners to address complex regional challenges through research-informed collaboration. Her work reflects a longstanding belief that universities achieve their greatest impact when they work alongside communities as partners in creating and sharing knowledge.
That perspective aligns closely with Temple’s strategic plan. Organized around the priorities of student success, research in action, and place-based impact, the plan reflects many of the values that have defined her career: expanding educational opportunity, advancing research that addresses real-world challenges, and deepening partnerships with communities. She is inspired by Temple’s mission of access, its deep roots in Philadelphia, and the vision to become one of the nation’s leading urban public research universities.
An accomplished scholar, her research focuses on the design and application of geographic technologies to better understand urban environments. She has a proven track record of securing both research and institutional transformation grants. Under her leadership at ASU, faculty and student research output, external funding, and national visibility all increased. She was also a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at ASU.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in geography from The Ohio State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Pennsylvania State University.