Wayne Vaught, PhD, has been appointed interim president of Utah Valley University. His appointment became effective on May 1, 2026.
Vaught previously served as the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at UVU, a role he held starting in June 2019.
Vaught's academic background includes a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown College with majors in Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion. He earned a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Baylor University and a PhD in Philosophy with a concentration in bioethics from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Before joining UVU, Vaught held several positions at the University of Missouri-Kansas City between 1998 and 2019. His roles there included assistant professor of philosophy and medicine, department chair, associate dean, and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He also served as an assistant professor of community and preventive medicine at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences from 1995 to 1998.
Vaught remains a tenured professor in the department of philosophy and humanities. He regularly provides guest lectures for UVU’s Ethics and Values course alongside colleague Brian Birch.
Vaught's scholarly work focuses on medical ethics, with publications in journals such as the Hasting Center Report, the Journal of Clinical Ethics, and Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. He has also co-authored two anthologies, Ethics Across the Professions and Morality and The Good Life.
Outside of his administrative and academic duties, Vaught enjoys skiing, hiking, biking, and fly fishing. He has also been a high school basketball referee for more than 30 years.
