Presidents
Duane Litfin
President from 1993 to 2010
Wheaton College's seventh president, Duane Litfin (Ph.D., Purdue University; D. Phil., Oxford University) served for seventeen years, from 1993 to 2010. During his tenure Wheaton's campus was enhanced by a campus mall, the Sports and Recreation Center, the Todd M. Beamer Student Center, the Marion E. Wade Center, and a new science center. Ten additional endowed academic chairs were established, and a doctoral program in Biblical and Theological Studies was initiated. He gave leadership to revisioning Wheaton's mascot as the Thunder in 2000 and shaping a new Community Covenant, which was adopted in 2003. His widely-read book on Christian higher education, Conceiving the Christian College (2004), imparts critical clarity on foundational issues such as institutional identity, the foundations of Christian thought, and establishing a more congenial academic environment.
Philip Ryken
President from 2010 to Present
Dr. Philip Graham Ryken '88 was appointed Wheaton’s eighth president in 2010. His strategic priorities for the College have included promoting liberal arts excellence, globalizing a Wheaton education, deepening ethnic diversity, strengthening spiritual formation, and enhancing music and the arts. Previously Dr. Ryken served as the senior minister of Philadelphia's historic Tenth Presbyterian Church. An English literature and philosophy major during his undergraduate years at Wheaton, Dr. Ryken earned a master of divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary and a doctorate in historical theology from Oxford University. He has published more than 50 books and Bible commentaries and lives next door to campus with his wife Lisa (Maxwell) Ryken, who also graduated from Wheaton in 1988. The Rykens have five children, including two Wheaton alums and two current Wheaton students, and two granddaughters.
Billy Graham Scholarship Program Coordinators
Diane Garvin
April McLaughlin