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School of Public Health
Rutgers logo
School of Public Health

Biography

Wendy M. Purcell, PhD, is a professor for the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice at the Rutgers School of Public Health. Prior to joining Rutgers, Dr. Purcell led research on global leadership and governance for transformational change as an academic research scholar with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. During her career, Dr. Purcell worked extensively at a strategic level with the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and was founder and inaugural Chair of the UK Council for Healthcare Scientists, Member of the Health Education England (HEE) Genomics Advisory Board and HEE’s Healthcare Science Implementation Network Group. She was Expert Advisor to UK Department of Health (DoH) on the Future Shape of the Healthcare Science Workforce, Chair of the DoH Healthcare Science Strategic Advisory Group in Higher Education, and Member of Universities UK Health Education and Research Policy Network. She continues to research global leadership and governance for sustainable transformation in higher education. She is a Council Member of the United Nations University, Governing Board Member European University EELISA, and Member of the American Association of Universities and Colleges. Dr. Purcell has authored over one hundred publications, is an academic editor and author. Her book, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sustainability in Higher Education: An Agenda for Transformational Change, is due out in Spring 2022. Dr. Purcell is a series editor of seventeen books on higher education and the sustainable development goals for Emerald Publishing. She is the editor-in-chief of Merits, an international journal focused on contemporary research issues related to enabling people at work to thrive, deputy editor of International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, and on the editorial boards of International Journal Sustainability in Higher Education, Advances in Environmental and Engineering Research, Leadership and Organizational Development, and Advances in Online Education.