Ben Sasse

Ben Sasse is the 13th president of the University of Florida. Immediately prior to his appointment, he served as a U.S. Senator from Nebraska from 2015 to 2023. Ben Sasse is also a fifth-generation Nebraskan. The son of a football and wrestling coach, he attended public school in Fremont, Neb., and spent his summers working soybean and corn fields. He was recruited to wrestle at Harvard before attending Oxford and later earning a Ph.D. in American history from Yale. Prior to serving in the U.S. Senate, Sasse spent five years as president of Midland University back in his hometown. As perhaps the only commuting family in the U.S. Senate during his service, Ben and his wife, Melissa, lived in Nebraska but homeschooled their three children as they commuted weekly back and forth to Washington, DC.