A. Zachary Faison, Jr.’s venture into higher education was, in large part, “providentially destined,” he says.
With family members serving as educators, administrators and educational consultants, and a transformative undergraduate experience at Albany State University (ASU), Faison set out with an “unshakable confidence” and responsibility to uplift his community through service in the historically Black college and university (HBCU) sphere.
“Once I became a student, the experience changed the course of my life,” Faison says of his time at ASU. “The cultural solidarity and academic intentionality of the community towards the pursuit of Black excellence in every endeavor was something I had never seen or experienced. I was simply awestruck and forever changed!”
The Atlanta native sought to become a leader that could “pay forward” the same investments that numerous faculty, staff, administrators and ASU’s first woman president Dr. Portia Holmes Shields made to him.
Faison earned a juris doctorate at the University of Georgia School of Law and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Institute for Educational Management.
He progressively garnered a multifaceted understanding of institutional governance around student and external affairs, enrollment management, economic development, data-informed decision-making, philanthropy and more from his administrative and professorial roles at ASU, Edward Waters College (EWC), Mississippi Valley State University, Virginia Union University and, most recently, Tuskegee University, where he served as the general counsel and vice president of external affairs.
In traversing the higher education landscape, Faison assumed the presidency of EWC in Jacksonville, Florida, this August at age 37, making him the youngest sitting president and CEO of an HBCU.
