JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Edward Waters University President A. Zachary Faison Jr. announced the death of Dr. Jennifer M. Price, the university’s former vice president for enrollment management and strategic matriculant services, who passed away Tuesday. She served in the role from 2019 to 2025.
Price joined what was then Edward Waters College when enrollment stood at approximately 900 students. Under her leadership, enrollment grew to nearly 1,300 — a trajectory that Faison credits as essential to the institution’s elevation from college to university status.
“We do not achieve the transformation from Edward Waters College to Edward Waters University without Dr. Price,” Faison said.
A leader who believed in students first
Beyond the numbers, Faison said, Price’s most lasting contribution was her investment in the students themselves.
“Dr. Price recruited young people to this university when they were 18 and 19 years old, and then she would not let go of them,” Faison said. “She saw what they could become before they could see it themselves.”
Four students who earned degrees at Edward Waters during Price’s tenure now work in enrollment management at the university. Te’Anna Austin serves as executive director of enrollment management. Rwiti Choudhury serves as assistant director of financial aid. Moshonda Durosier serves as senior admissions recruiter, and Cortland Faison serves as admissions recruiter. Each holds a master’s degree from Edward Waters University. Durosier holds two.
“That is the REAL work,” Faison wrote. “Everything else is just a number.”
A career devoted to HBCUs
Price began her career as a student worker in an admissions office before earning her master’s degree at Bowie State University, a historically Black college and university. She dedicated the culminating years of her professional life to HBCUs and the students they serve.
Most recently, she served as vice president of enrollment management at Clinton College in Rock Hill, South Carolina, before her time at Edward Waters. She described her professional philosophy simply: There is no I, only we.
As the longest-serving member of Faison’s executive cabinet, Price spent nearly seven years at Edward Waters. Faison described her as someone who handled the demands of working alongside him with rare skill.
“Anyone who has worked closely with me understands the intensity I bring to this office, and Dr. Price handled it with a deftness I have rarely encountered in anyone — knowing when to absorb it, when to push back, and when to let it pass,” Faison said.
“By the time she left Edward Waters, we did not end a telephone call without telling each other that we loved one another. I did not know then how much I would come to treasure that.”
Faison extended condolences on behalf of the entire Edward Waters University community to Price’s family.
“We love you, Dr. Price. Rest in paradise,” Faison wrote, closing his statement with a scripture from John 17:4: “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.”
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