Wayne Vaught, PhD was appointed interim president of Utah Valley University effective May 1, 2026. He was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Henry Clay High School. He is married to Eileen Amari-Vaught and has two children: Mia and Lauren.
Interim President Vaught received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown College with majors in Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion (1989). He received a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Baylor University (1991) and a PhD in Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (1996).
Prior to his appointment as interim president, Vaught served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, a position he has held since June 2019. Prior to coming to UVU, Vaught was an assistant professor of community and preventive medicine at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences (1995-1998) (now Drexel College of Medicine). He spent most of his career (1998-2019) at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he began as an assistant professor of philosophy and medicine, holding a joint appointment between the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine. He taught medical ethics in addition to courses in philosophy. He served in a number of leadership roles including department chair, associate dean and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
While he enjoys his role as a university administrator, he retains a close connection to his faculty roots. Teaching is his passion and motivates him to promote a quality educational experience for all students at UVU. He holds a tenured faculty position at the rank of professor in the department of philosophy and humanities and regularly gives guest lectures in UVU’s Ethics and Values course with his colleague Brian Birch.
His scholarship focusses on medical ethics and he has published articles in several leading bioethics journals, including the Hasting Center Report, the Journal of Clinical Ethics, and Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. He has also co-author two anthologies with his colleague and friend Clancy Martin: Ethics Across the Professions (Oxford University Press 3rd Edition 2024) and Morality and The Good Life (McGraw Hill, 2009).
When not serving in his role at UVU, Vaught can be found skiing, hiking, biking and fly fishing. He also continues to referee high school basketball, which he has done for over 30 years.
