What to Know
- Temple University named JoAnne Epps as their new acting president following a unanimous vote from the school's Board of Trustees on Tuesday.
- Epps, 71, has taught at the school for more than 30 years and was previously the Senior advisor to the university president. She was also the Dean of Temple Law School from July 2008 until being appointed as Executive Vice President and Provost of Temple University in July 2016.
- Epps will remain acting president until a new president is appointed. There will be a formal search process from the Board of Trustees.
Temple University named JoAnne Epps as their new acting president.
The school’s Board of Trustees made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon following a unanimous vote.
Epps, 71, has taught at the school for more than 30 years and was previously the Senior advisor to the university president. She was also the Dean of Temple Law School from July 2008 until being appointed as Executive Vice President and Provost of Temple University in July 2016.
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"Temple has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember," Epps said. "So to be given this honor at this time means more than I could probably put into words. It is going to be my sincere promise to do the best I can in this role."
Outside of Temple, Epps served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia and Deputy City Attorney in Los Angeles.
A native of Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, Epps was awarded a 2015 Spirit of Excellence Award by the American Bar Association, the 2015 M. Ashley Dickerson Award by the National Association of Women Lawyers, and the 2014 Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award by the Philadelphia Bar Association.
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She is also a three-time honoree by Lawyers of Color Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Black lawyers in the country. She was honored by the Philadelphia Bar Association in 2009 with the Sandra Day o’Connor Award, which is given annually to “a woman attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant legal accomplishments and has furthered the advancement of women in both the profession and the community.”
Epps received her B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1973 and is a 1976 graduate of Yale Law School. She currently lives with her husband in New Jersey.
Epps will remain acting president until a new president is appointed. There will be a formal search process from the Board of Trustees.
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The announcement comes two weeks after Jason Wingard resigned as the school's president. The Board of Trustees accepted his resignation which went into effect on March 31.
Officials said “a small group of senior Temple leaders” would be designated to guide the university while another president was sought.
“This group will have many years of experience at Temple and devotion to its mission,” the announcement said. “Each will have discrete responsibilities for the university’s essential functions and provide a stable foundation for us as we look toward the search for our next president.”
Wingard, 51, had led the 33,600-student university since July 2021.
Wingard’s resignation followed a tumultuous year for the university, which included the shooting death of Temple Police Sergeant Chris Fitzgerald, continued concerns over violence near the campus and a strike from graduate student teaching and research assistants that lasted six weeks.
In March, the school's faculty union discussed the possibility of holding a no-confidence vote in Wingard and two other top officials. During an emergency town hall meeting, faculty members cited their concerns over crime, the handling of the strike, university finances and cuts to the Temple workforce, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Wingard told a panel of state lawmakers that Philadelphia’s homicide rate had wrought a climate in which students, faculty, parents and staff are afraid.
It was just this past December when Wingard told NBC10's Lauren Mayk that he planned to move with his wife and teenage son to a university-owned North Carlisle Street house that is just a block from Temple's campus. The move was expected to be completed in the spring.
"We're working on making sure that our transition isn't more disruptive to our near neighbors and to the community in general," Wingard told NBC10 at the time. "So we don't have a sense yet of what we're going to do but our major focus right now are the neighbors who are here on Carlisle Street."
The move would have made Wingard "the first Temple president to live on or near Main Campus in the institution’s recent history," the university said in a Temple Now post.
