Wendy Rheault, PT, PhD, FASAHP, FNAP, DipACLM

President and CEO

wendy.rheault@rosalindfranklin.edu

President and CEO Wendy Rheault, PT, PhD, FASAHP, FNAP, DipACLM, took office on July 1, 2019. The first woman to lead the university since its founding in 1912, she has fostered innovation in every area of the academy. Her many efforts include establishing a culture of philanthropy as a shared responsibility, and collaboration across every level of administration, learning and practice. Interprofessional collaboration continues to fuel community, clinical and academic partnerships that help meet regional workforce and wellness needs and broaden access to education. Through the creation of the 2024-2027 strategic plan, Dr. Rheault has also envisioned sustainability strategies to ensure the university’s mission to provide highly trained clinicians and researchers for the future.

A national leader in health professions education reform, Dr. Rheault has worked throughout her career to redefine health care as an interprofessional team-based effort to improve the well-being of people and their communities. She led numerous curricular innovations at RFU aimed at producing professionals trained to practice in highly collaborative, interprofessional teams. Those include an expansion of simulation training, a population health program and community service models tied to learning outcomes and driven by the curriculum.

Dr. Rheault has served the university in numerous faculty and administrative capacities for more than four decades. She was named the first provost of the institution in 2014. As dean of the College of Health Professions from 2003 to 2014 and associate dean in the 10 years prior, Dr. Rheault oversaw a doubling of RFU’s enrollment with the addition of programs including doctor of physical therapy, physician assistant studies, pathologists’ assistant, nurse anesthesia, health administration, health professions education and interprofessional healthcare studies. She also led the development of the MS in Nurse Anesthesia, MS in Clinical Counseling, MS in Health Professions Education, MS in Women’s Health, MS in Health Promotion, Prevention and Wellness, in addition to a PhD in Interprofessional Healthcare Studies and DSc in Interprofessional Healthcare Studies. She also served as chair of the Physical Therapy program for a decade, leading several successful accreditation visits.

She was appointed Vice President of Academic Affairs in 2008 and in that role led the development of RFU’s interprofessional education initiative and the Alliance of Health Sciences with DePaul University.

A distinguished fellow of the National Academies of Practice and Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions (ASAHP), she has served as a visiting professor at the Mayo Clinic, on two committees of the National Academy of Medicine, as a member of the board of the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County and past president of the Midwest Deans of the ASAHP.

Named in 2018 among Crain’s Chicago Notable Women in Education and Distinguished Alumni of the Year by Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, where she earned a BS in physical therapy, Dr. Rheault is also an alumna of the University of Chicago, which awarded her a master of arts in curriculum and instruction, and a PhD in measurement, evaluation and statistical analysis.

Dr. Rheault has published in peer reviewed journals and has presented at national and international meetings. Her area of scholarship is the psychometric analysis of clinical and educational measurement instruments using Rasch Analysis.