Updated as of 2:20 p.m. on June 15 to include quotes from an interview with John Walz.
Elon University selected John Walz, the president emeritus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, to serve as the inaugural dean of Elon University’s School of Engineering and Computing, Elon announced June 9.
Walz’s selection comes after a national confidential search process. Over the last four years, only this search and the search for the dean of students were made confidential. Five other non-confidential dean searches took place during this time period.
Walz will spearhead the opening of the school in fall 2026 as the departments of engineering and computer science merge with 20 full-time faculty members and more than 300 undergraduate students.
“The launch of the School of Engineering and Computing represents an exciting step forward for Elon University,” Elon president Connie Book said in a university press release. “Dr. Walz brings a rare combination of academic leadership, industry engagement and commitment to student-centered education.”
Walz, who said the job personally appealed to him because of his two daughters who live in Durham, said the opportunity to build the school also attracted him to the position.
“It's starting from a good place,” Walz said in an interview with Elon News Network. “We're not starting from scratch, but there's just a lot of opportunity to build it and to lay the framework and to just make an outstanding school for the future and that appealed to my sense of loving to build.”
Walz has over 30 years of experience in the academic space, including roles at Virginia Tech, Yale University and the University of Kentucky’s College of Engineering — where he served as the dean of the school.
Walz then served as the president of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, a small school in Wisconsin with less than 3,000 undergraduate students. During his time there, he led the development of a comprehensive strategic plan and helped raise over $100 million in fundraising for major projects. He also introduced a computer science program and undergraduate degrees with focuses in artificial intelligence. The school also regularly hosted a career fair that over 400 companies attended.
During his tenure, Walz also put a focus on balancing engineering with other subjects. Under Walz’s leadership, the Milwaukee School of Engineering created a music program. The school also has humanities professors for non-degree classes.
He also focused on growing the school’s diversity. A year after he started, the student population was 24% female, but rose to 35% last year.
During Walz’s presentation May 6 to Elon faculty, staff and students before being selected for the role, he said one of his main priorities would be getting the news out about Elon.
“This is a new school. It's different,” Walz said during the presentation. “We've got to market heavily to let people know we're here.”
Walz said that he will take time to learn and talk to faculty, students and local industry partners to get to know Elon. One of his priorities includes establishing connections with local industry organizations and partners, he said in an interview with Elon News Network. Walz also said that he wants to make sure graduates know how to apply emerging technologies like artificial intelligence to their fields as they head into the workforce.
He also said he wants to establish a vision and brand for the school as it navigates its opening.
“What do we want the brand of a graduate from the School of Engineering and Computing to be?” Walz said during the presentation. “It's got to be distinct. It can't be the same brand as NC State and Virginia Tech and these places, because they've been doing it a long time and pretty good, right? We have to have our own.”
Part of establishing this vision for the school will come from working with and listening to faculty, students and alumni, Walz said.
“What do we want Elon's brand to be?” Walz said in an interview with Elon News Network. “I think defining that is going to be really critically important, so students will know what it is when they come, and companies will know what it is when they hire a graduate from the school.”
Walz said that as he steps into the role, he will need to both accomplish long-term goals like establishing a brand, but also accomplish short-term goals in the first couple of years.
“You can't be focused strictly on the short term, but you can't ignore the short term either,” Walz said in an interview with Elon News Network. “So, we have to make sure that we're operating efficiently and doing everything that we can for our students, but at the same time we have to make sure that we're taking the time and making the time to look to the future and taking that brand and working with others.”
Walz officially joins the university’s administration June 30.