Dr. Brian L. Johnson Named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Edward Waters University

Dr. Brian L. Johnson Named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Edward Waters University

Edward Waters University President Dr. A. Zachary Faison, Jr., has named Dr. Brian L. Johnson as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, adding a nationally recognized higher education executive, scholar, and former university president to the University’s senior leadership team at a defining moment of institutional growth and ascendancy. His appointment is effective Monday, July 13, 2026.

Johnson assumes a senior executive role focused on strengthening the University’s operational capacity and institutional discipline as Edward Waters advances an unprecedented period of growth and investment. He joins an institution on a clear upward trajectory under President Faison’s leadership: enrollment surpassed 1,200 students for the first time in more than two decades in fall 2025, academic degree program offerings doubled from eight to sixteen since 2018, a successful transition to NCAA Division II in 2024, and tens of millions of dollars have been invested in campus capital and infrastructure improvements. This progress is anchored by full SACSCOC reaffirmation of accreditation in December 2025 with no recommendations, extending EWU’s accreditation through 2035, six consecutive years of a net cash operating surplus, and record endowment growth. Reporting directly to the President and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson will serve as the University’s dual chief operating executive, responsible for translating institutional strategy and presidential priorities into disciplined execution across the enterprise.

As Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Johnson serves as a senior executive partner to the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, whose portfolio encompasses the University’s academic enterprise, as well as the divisions of Student Success and Engagement, and Institutional Advancement, Development, Marketing, and Communications. Both report directly to the President and CEO, who retains ultimate authority for institutional strategy and executive decision-making for all matters of institutional consequence and significance. Johnson will provide executive leadership and strategic partnership across the University’s operational, enrollment, and financial divisions, including Campus Operations & Facilities Management; Enrollment Management & Strategic Matriculant Services; and Finance, Administration, & Business Innovation, aligning resources, systems, and personnel with institutional priorities.

A seasoned administrative executive with more than two decades of leadership across higher education, Johnson brings direct experience leading colleges and universities at the highest level. He most recently served as the eighth President of Warner Pacific University in Portland, Oregon, from 2020 to 2025, where he led a period of institutional revitalization and fiscal strengthening. Under his leadership, Warner Pacific became the first four-year institution in Oregon to secure a multimillion-dollar Title V grant for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, secured a multimillion-dollar Hawkins Title II grant, and was restored to full governing membership in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

Johnson previously served as the seventh President of Tuskegee University, the historic Alabama institution founded by Booker T. Washington, from 2014 to 2017. During his tenure, the University moved from recurring operating deficits to audited surpluses, significantly reduced its long-term debt, resolved a SACSCOC accreditation warning tied to governance and fiscal stability, and advanced a five-year strategic plan and a ten-year campus master plan. Earlier in his career, Johnson served as Vice President at Mercy College in New York, where he led its Manhattan campus, and as interim Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness and Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs at Austin Peay State University. His career reflects a sustained record of enterprise leadership across public, private, faith-based, and historically Black institutions.

A scholar and administrator by training, Johnson earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from Johnson C. Smith University, a historically Black university; his Master of Arts in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and his Doctor of Philosophy in English, with a specialization in seventeenth to nineteenth century American literature, from the University of South Carolina. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Letters from Mercy College and has held fellowships including the Andrew W. Mellon-Benjamin Mays Postdoctoral Fellowship and an American Council on Education Fellowship. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, and 100 Black Men of America, and has served on the boards of the Trinity Forum and the United Negro College Fund.

“The evolution of our executive leadership structure reflects a deliberate and intentional design,” said Dr. A. Zachary Faison, Jr., President and CEO of Edward Waters University. “As we finalize a new ten-year strategic plan and build on an extraordinary period of institutional advancement, I have intentionally designed a two-pillar executive model, one academic and one operational, that positions Edward Waters to scale with discipline and sustain the momentum we have established. This structure ensures that our operational, enrollment, and financial enterprise is led with the same rigor and ambition that has defined our academic progress.”

“Dr. Brian Johnson is precisely the leader this moment requires,” Faison added. “His experience leading institutions at the highest level, his scholarly distinction, and his command of what it takes to operate a complex university make him an exceptional fit for the vision I have established for advancing this University over the next decade. In close partnership with our Provost and the members of my executive cabinet, Brian will help us convert bold vision into disciplined execution as we carry Edward Waters to even greater heights of emerging eminence.”

“I am deeply grateful to President Faison for the opportunity to serve Edward Waters University at this pivotal moment,” said Dr. Brian L. Johnson. “President Faison’s visionary and transformational leadership has taken this historic institution from survival to genuine excellence, and the record speaks for itself: record enrollment, reaffirmed accreditation through 2035, sustained financial strength, and a rapidly rising national profile. It is a privilege to join his executive team, and I am humbled by the confidence he has placed in me. I look forward to working in close partnership with Provost Boston, my colleagues on the President’s executive cabinet, and the entire Edward Waters academic community to advance President Faison’s vision and help carry this University to even greater heights.”

With Johnson joining its executive leadership, Edward Waters University further strengthens the senior team guiding the academic, operational, and overall advancement of Florida’s ‘Destination Institution’ of Emerging Eminence in the years ahead.

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About Edward Waters University

Founded in 1866, Edward Waters University is Florida’s first independent institution of higher learning and its first historically Black college or university. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, EWU is a private, Christian, liberal arts, historically Black university located in Jacksonville, Florida.

Contact:

Office of Communications and Marketing
Edward Waters University
1658 Kings Road, Jacksonville, FL 32209
(904) 470-8000