Bio
Betsy Barre serves as Assistant Provost and Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) at Wake Forest University, where she has led efforts to advance teaching excellence and faculty development since 2018. In her role as Assistant Provost, she works closely with the Provost’s Office to support the university’s commitment to teaching quality and faculty learning.
A nationally recognized voice in higher education, Dr. Barre has contributed to conversations on faculty development, student workload, course design, and — most recently — the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching and learning. She has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, on National Public Radio and numerous higher education podcasts, and has presented her work at colleges and universities across the country.
Dr. Barre developed the widely used Course Workload Estimator (with colleagues at Rice University and Wake Forest), a free, open-source tool that helps faculty design courses with realistic and equitable student workloads. Her research has been published in journals including the Journal of Religious Ethics and the Journal on Centers for Teaching and Learning.
Before joining Wake Forest, she held positions at Rice University, Marymount Manhattan College, Lake Forest College, Emory University School of Law, and Florida State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy from Florida State University and a B.A. in Philosophy, summa cum laude, from Bowling Green State University.
Dr. Barre is also Affiliate Faculty in the Department for the Study of Religions and teaches a First-Year Seminar on Sexual Ethics.