The Newcombe Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Damián J. Fernández, Ph.D. to the Board of Trustees. He was named the 10th president of Warren Wilson College in 2023, believes in the power of education and interpersonal relations to transform lives. Born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, President Fernández is a first-generation college graduate. He earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Latin American Studies, from Princeton University, a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Florida and a doctorate in international relations from University of Miami.
Fernández began his career as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Colorado College. Later he joined Florida International University, where over 20 years, he honed his teaching, research, financial management and strategic planning skills, earning the rank of tenured full professor, leading the Cuban Research Institute, launching the University’s Long-Range Planning Office, revitalizing the Biscayne Bay campus, and rising to the role of Vice Provost. He is widely published—notably as the author of Cuba and the Politics of Passion (Austin: University of Texas, 2000)—and is a National Science Foundation grant recipient.
As the Provost and Executive Vice President at SUNY Purchase, he framed a strategic planning process around broad involvement and community engagement. His reengineering of administrative structures at Purchase resulted in reduced costs and increased interdisciplinary
collaboration. He led another strategic planning process as Chief Executive Officer and Head of School at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, which resulted in re-centering the ethics curriculum and enhancing world languages and global education. He also advanced efforts to reduce the school’s carbon footprint.
Implementing programs that increase diversity, ensure equity, promote inclusion and facilitate access has been a priority throughout Fernández’s career—including his time as chancellor at The Pennsylvania State University, Abington College, where his leadership resulted in measurable increases in recruitment of students of color and the hiring of underrepresented faculty. In recognition of his commitment and success, he was honored in 2019 by the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as Hispanic Professional of the Year, and in 2018 with the Philadelphia Business Journal Minority Business Leaders Award.
He served as President of Eckerd College, a liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Florida, from 2020 to 2022. While leading the College through the pandemic he developed a strategic plan, raised $38 million, inaugurated the Office of Inclusive Excellence, established the Nielsen Center for the Liberal Arts, welcomed the largest class of first-year students, and created the St. Petersburg Center for Civic Engagement and Social Impact.
At Warren Wilson College he is leading an effort to reinvent the liberal arts and sciences for our times through place-based and problem-centered experiential learning that integrates academics, service, and work: Our Progressive Promise for All: Education in Action for the
Common Good.
Fernández has served on the Board of the American Council on Education and the AGB President’s Council. He is a member of the Charlotte Newcombe Foundation Board and Academic Search Board.