Willis G. Wang was appointed in 2009 to create and oversee BU Global Programs.  As Vice President and Associate Provost for Global Programs, he is BU’s senior international officer responsible for major global initiatives, which have included a graduate dental research school in Dubai, a non-profit in India, and global health research operations in Zambia. Willis provides strategic leadership for BU Global Programs and oversight of its academic and student affairs, budgetary and planning responsibilities, enrollment and revenue growth, and efforts to strengthen international institution capacity building.

As a comprehensive international office, Global Programs consist of over 400 people working for BU year-round to facilitate global mobility and intercultural experiences. Willis oversees a team that annually enrolls more than 2,400 students in BU developed and managed Study Abroad programs and provides immigration support to more than 11,000 international students and scholars at the University (International Students and Scholars Office). Among other activities, this team manages academic centers and offices in 12 cities in 11 countries; operates a long-standing accredited ESL school (Center for English Language and Orientation Programs); and provides operational and risk management expertise for BU global teaching, research, and service-learning activities.

As Deputy General Counsel, and after joining BU in 1998, Willis’s legal practice focused on international ventures, corporate transactions, technology transfer, endowment investments, research, and environmental matters. He is a trustee of Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, MA. Prior to BU, Willis was in-house counsel at an MIT spin-off technology company that reached a market cap of $1 Billion in the mid-90s and a U.S. EPA enforcement lawyer. He is a graduate of Emory University and Boston College Law School.