Fresh Take ft. Dr. Gregory Washington

This Fresh Take interview featured Dr. Gregory Washington, President, George Mason University. JB and Dr. Washington discussed the state of higher ed in the Capital Region and beyond, increasing the diversity and inclusivity of digital tech pathways, and the evolving role of education in today’s economy.

Hosted by JB Holston.  Produced by Jenna Klym, Justin Matheson-Turner, Christian Rodriguez, and Nina Sharma. Edited by Christian Rodriguez. 

Learn from leaders doing the work across the Capital Region and beyond. These conversations will showcase innovation, as well as history and culture across our region, to bridge the gap between how we got here and where we are going.

About our guest:

Gregory Washington became Mason’s eighth president on July 1, 2020, taking leadership of the largest and most diverse public university in Virginia, a Carnegie Tier 1 research institution, and a beacon of access for students of all backgrounds.

The former dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and former interim dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University, Washington immediately put his skills as a strategic and collaborative solutions-oriented leader to work to guide Mason’s successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his seven years at UCI, Washington expanded undergraduate enrollment in the engineering school by 1,100 students and graduate enrollment by more than 200. He established the University of California’s first student makerspace and helped establish the OC STEM Initiative, one of the nation’s first STEM ecosystems, in Orange County, California, engaging more than 100,000 students.

The first African American dean of engineering at any University of California campus, and the first African American president at Mason, Washington recruited and hired one of the most diverse engineering faculty cohorts in the country at UCI, with more than 45 percent of his more than 60 hires being women or from underrepresented groups.

Washington launched his academic career in 1995 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering at Ohio State University. He became an associate professor in 2000 and a professor in 2004. He began serving as the college’s associate dean for research in 2005 and also led the university’s Institute for Energy and the Environment. From 2008 to 2011, Washington served as interim dean of the Ohio State engineering school, one of the largest in the country.

His current board service includes S&P Global, Internet2, Sandia National Laboratories (Engineering Sciences Advisory Board), Northern Virginia Technology Council, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, and Octane. Previous board service includes the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, NSF Engineering Advisory Committee, and the Institute for Defense Analyses.

A first-generation college graduate, Washington is a New York City native who attended high school in North Carolina. He earned bachelor’s (1989) and master’s degrees (1991) and his PhD (1994), all in mechanical engineering, at North Carolina State University. He is a member of the NC State Engineering Foundation’s Board of Directors.