President

Dr. Damián J. Fernández

Dr. Damián J. Fernández is the 10th president of Warren Wilson College.

A Cuban immigrant raised in Puerto Rico and a first-generation college student, Fernández has more than 30 years of teaching and leadership experience at private and public institutions. He served as president of Eckerd College prior to coming to Warren Wilson in June of 2023.

In his first six months at Warren Wilson Fernández launched The Progressive Promise for All, a vision combining the College’s founding values with academic and student engagement innovations to maximize student outcomes for the 21st Century. Warren Wilson is the first college in the nation where every student in every major completes an internship for credit,  community-engaged courses, and a capstone project, and completes four years learning valuable skills on a campus work crew—an honors-level education for all. His vision for the future has led to more than $30 million in gifts in three years, including the largest in the College’s history—$10 million.

Other initiatives include the launch of a Masters in Applied Climate Studies, a new Animal Science major, the Nielsen Student Scholars in the Humanities, and partnerships that will preserve in perpetuity 780 acres of campus land in the Blue Ridge Mountains, providing $10 million for the College’s endowment.This past year, the College received $1.5 million to advance the use and study of agrivoltaics and a $500K gift to launch Democracy in Action (DIA), a college-wide initiative designed to explore the principles of democratic life. Under his leadership, the College has had three years of balanced budgets, and the endowment has grown from $50 million to $75 million. The renewal of Warren Wilson College is redefining the business model for liberal arts colleges. 

Fernández received his bachelor’s from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, a master’s in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida, and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Miami. His research centers on Latin American politics and international relations. He authored the book Cuba and the Politics of Passion.

He is a board member of the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, the Council for Independent Colleges, North Carolina Campus Engagement, and the American Academic Leadership Institute/Academic Search. He also has served the Board of the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Association of Governing Boards.