Edward Waters University has been located in Jacksonville's New Town neighborhood since 1904. The university has called Jacksonville home since 1982. | Ben Brown, special to Jacksonville Today
Published on September 4, 2026 at 4:46 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Edward Waters University leaders say a $1 million gift from the James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation will fortify its endowment in the years and decades ahead.
Edward Waters President A. Zachary Faison Jr. says the endowment infusion will allow the university in Jacksonville’s New Town community to generate student scholarships, support faculty development and improve campus resources.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“This is a significant, significant addition to our endowment that is going to allow us to have more capacity in all of those aforementioned areas in terms of how we support our students and our academic community,” Faison says.
Edward Waters has nearly quadrupled its endowment over the past decade. Faison told Jacksonville Today the Dimon Foundation gift brings its endowment to $8.6 million. It was $2.3 million when he arrived in 2018.
Edward Waters was one of 12 historically Black universities that received $1 million apiece. The others are all private universities in South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina and Alabama.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
The foundation was created by the chairman and CEO at J.P. Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, as well as his wife, Judy. In a statement, the Dimons extolled the young adults at the 12 institutions.
“Our system of HBCUs continue to serve as the springboard to success for thousands of students in pursuit of the American Dream,” Jamie and Judy Dimon said in a statement. “As the children of first-generation high school and college graduates, we were imbued with a thirst for knowledge and a drive to succeed — principles that we have passed on to our own children and that we wish to share with all the students at the selected HBCUs. We are honored to help (the United Negro College Fund) strengthen the long-term financial viability of these critical schools of higher learning.”
This summer the United Negro College Fund released its second report about the influence historically Black universities have had in producing graduates in science, technology, engineering and math-related fields. Edward Waters, as well as its Florida-based peers Bethune-Cookman University and Florida Memorial, are all members.
That report found historically Black universities may represent 9% of four-year degree institutions, yet they produce 28% of Black-earned bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields.
In the last half decade, Edward Waters has launched a public health program and established a relationship with the University of Florida College of Nursing to provide more pathways to that profession.
Faison says those programs were added based off data that informed the university’s expiring strategic plan. Edward Waters expects to unveil its next strategic plan in January.
It’s the next evolution for a university whose enrollment has increased by 37% since 2019.
United Negro College Fund CEO Michael Lomax says the best way to expand opportunities among the private schools that comprise the organization is to financially strengthen them.
“Endowments create permanence. Permanence creates independence. Independence creates the freedom to innovate, to lead, and to serve generations of students,” Lomax said in a statement. “Jamie and Judy Dimon have embraced that vision, and their investment will strengthen the future of HBCUs in the years to come.”
