Education 2024: GREGORY WASHINGTON

In 2020, Washington became the first Black president of Virginia’s largest and most diverse public university. He was previously dean of the University of California, Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

A first-generation college graduate, Washington holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University.

Under his leadership, Mason established the state’s first College of Public Health at its Fairfax campus in 2022. GMU also is undertaking a major expansion of its Arlington campus; the $250 million Fuse at Mason Square building, where the Institute for Digital InnovAtion and School of Computing will be housed, is expected to be complete in May 2025.

George Mason has received significant donations in recent years, including a $50 million bequest, announced in May 2023, from late Loudoun County businessman Donald G. Costello to endow business school scholarships. In May, the Peterson Family Foundation, the family behind the Peterson Cos. real estate development firm, donated $5 million to the college’s Center for the Arts improvement project.

In fall 2023, Mason enrolled its largest freshman class with more than 40,000 students.