Wake Forest Student Government announced its 2026-2027 Executive Board on April 10, following a 24-hour voting period. Rising senior Gray Lowder will serve as Student Body President, rising junior Harper Lindsay as Speaker of the House, rising senior Cate Hardin as Secretary and rising senior Michael Gourlias as Treasurer. Rising senior Hanna Shakarov will also join the Executive Board as appointed Chief of Staff.
According to election results posted to the Student Government Instagram on April 14, 65.62% of the 1821 undergraduates who voted in the election supported Lowder. Lindsay and Hardin won with 50.74% and 71.93% shares of their respective races. Gourlias ran unopposed and secured 95.44% of the vote.
Lowder reacts
In a statement to the Old Gold & Black, Lowder expressed gratitude to his supporters and recommended that students follow @WFUSGpresident on Instagram for updates.
“Thank you for trusting me to be your Student Body President,” Lowder said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to lead our Student Government and make student voices heard in the rooms where decisions are made. For many, the Student Government is only spoken of during election week and then fades into the background. That pattern ends with this executive board.”
He continued: “To my friends, staff, endorsers, and family, thank you for being along for the ride. I’m really excited to work with student leaders in our Greek, affinity, religious, athletic and social organizations on campus… To the school administration, I’m excited to work through the many issues that students face for the betterment of current and incoming students.”
About the incoming executive board
Lowder is a junior from Englewood, Fla., majoring in finance. Lowder’s campaign focused on meeting tangible objectives to enhance the student experience.
“Everybody here loves Wake Forest, but we all know there are some flaws, and those absolutely can be addressed in this next school year,” Lowder said at an April 8 debate.
Lowder’s goals include creating an off-campus housing registry listing nearby properties, organizing a charitable drive to support student organizations and hosting a “Pitch Perfect”-style riff-off competition with acapella groups and other performing ensembles.
Lindsay, the incoming Speaker of the House, is a sophomore from Windsor, Mass., majoring in economics and politics & international affairs. She said she aims to improve the student government’s efficiency and focus.
“I want to shorten our time that we spend on committee reports and focus more on the discussion where things actually get done,” Lindsay said at the debate.
Incoming Secretary Hardin is a junior from Baltimore majoring in communication. Hardin said she will work to increase attendance at Student Government meetings and expand its social media presence.
“I think that putting faces to names, that’s the easiest way to increase accessibility and create comfortability between the student body and Student Government,” Hardin said at the debate.
Incoming Treasurer Gourlias is a junior from Erie, Pa., majoring in economics and English. He said he will seek to improve student organizations’ access to Student Budget Advisory Committee funding.
“We want to ensure that these clubs understand what they can work with with their funding,” Gourlias said at the debate.
All results of this student government election can be found here.
President
Gray Lowder: 1195 votes (65.62%)
Ayden Boucher: 589 votes (32.34%)
Speaker of the House
Harper Lindsay: 924 votes (50.74%)
Beck Riedel: 867 votes (47.61%)
Secretary
Cate Hardin: 1310 votes (71.93%)
Lacy February: 472 votes (25.91%)
Treasurer
Michael Gourlias: 1738 votes (95.44%)
Class of 2027 Senators
Shrirahan Atluri
Maddox Braue
Sam Helman
Kevin Lee
Class of 2028 Senators
Tille Gavitt
Stella Katz
Matthew Lameo
Kayden Peery
Sienna Sferrazza
Julia Smith
Henry Wolfe
Class of 2029 Senators (Run-off)
Claire Birdsey
Danielle Cook
Winston Fugate
Ella Hammer
Sophia Hoover
Grant Kinghorn
Larkin Moffett
Erin Moskowitz
Ben Oswald
Kaleb Priester
Arieliz Reyes
Eve Romanelli
Izzi Schulte
Camille Summers
Nicole Tavis
Katelyn Van Dusen
Correction, April 16: an earlier version of this article misspelled Beck Riedel’s last name.
