James W. Wagner (born 1953) is an American materials engineer. He served as the 19th president of

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

in Georgia from 2003 to 2016 and as provost of

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

in Ohio from 2000 to 2003.

Biography

James W. Wagner was born in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

in 1953.nndb
/ref>

He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

in 1975 and an M.S. in clinical engineering in 1978 from the

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a Private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Ho ...

.Emory history

/ref> In 1984, he received a PhD from Johns Hopkins in materials science and engineering. He started his career as a professor at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. He also worked at the

United States Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

. From 1998 to 2000, he served as a dean at Case Western Reserve University. He served as the provost from 2000 to 2003 and as the interim president from 2001 to 2002. According to the New York Times, Wagner received $1,040,420 in total compensation at Emory in 2008. In 2009, he became a fellow at the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...

. He also serves on the boards of

The Carter Center The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University after his defeat in the 1980 United States presidential electi ...

, the

Georgia Research Alliance The Georgia Research Alliance is an Atlanta, Georgia-based nonprofit organization that coordinates research efforts between Georgia's public and private sectors. While the GRA receives a state appropriation for investment in university-based researc ...

SunTrust Banks SunTrust Banks, Inc. was an American bank holding company with SunTrust Bank as its largest subsidiary and assets of US$199 billion as of March 31, 2018. The bank's most direct corporate parent was established in 1891 in Atlanta, where it was h ...

, the

Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

, the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education, and the

Woodruff Arts Center Woodruff Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center located in Atlanta, Georgia. The center houses three not-for-profit arts divisions on one campus. Opened in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlan ...

. He is a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

Controversy

In February 2013, Emory University president Wagner wrote an essay in the ''Emory Magazine'' entitled "As American as... Compromise" in which he used the

Three-Fifths Compromise The Three-fifths Compromise, also known as the Constitutional Compromise of 1787, was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention over the inclusion of slaves in counting a state's total population. This count ...

as an example of pragmatic compromise that Emory University should emulate. He wrote, "One instance of constitutional compromise was the agreement to count three-fifths of the slave population for purposes of state representation in Congress... Both sides found a way to temper ideology and continue working toward the highest aspiration they both shared—the aspiration to form a more perfect union. They set their sights higher, not lower, in order to identify their common goal and keep moving toward it." The essay sparked controversy on Emory's campus and attracted national and international media attention and an apology from Wagner. Per the New York ''Times'', Wagner "acknowledged both the nation’s continuing education in

race relations Race relations is a sociological concept that emerged in Chicago in connection with the work of sociologist Robert E. Park and the Chicago race riot of 1919. Race relations designates a paradigm or field in sociology and a legal concept in th ...

and his own." Leslie Harris, an Emory history professor who has worked to address issues of race at the college, countered that “ e three-fifths compromise is one of the greatest failed compromises in U.S. history .... Its goal was to keep the union together, but the Civil War broke out anyway.”Severson, Kim, and Robbie Brown
"Emory University’s Leader Reopens Its Racial Wounds"
New York ''times'', February 23, 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-24.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, James W. 1953 births Living people People from Silver Spring, Maryland American Presbyterians University of Delaware alumni Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni Case Western Reserve University faculty Presidents of Emory University Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Presidents of Case Western Reserve University