Former Surgeon General of the Navy will drive expanded CSU/regional capability

Vice Admiral Forrest Faison III, a longtime health care administrator and senior military commander with extensive experience in medical education and innovation, has been appointed senior vice president for research & innovation/chief healthcare strategy officer at Cleveland State University. He will oversee the broad effort to unify and expand CSU’s educational, outreach and scholarship efforts in all aspects of health care, while spurring the continued growth of Cleveland as a center for medical innovation. He will also seek to develop new pathways and strategies designed to enhance the university’s status as a nationally recognized urban research university. 

“Forrest Faison is an innovative and energetic leader who has the experience, drive and national connections necessary to lead CSU’s continued evolution as a first-in-class research university and anchor and beacon institution for Northeast Ohio,” said Harlan Sands, president of Cleveland State University. “His leadership will also be critical to further our efforts to create the health care programs, technologies and workforce that will improve the lives of people throughout the community and enhance the continued advancement of the regional economy.”

“Cleveland State University has a number of tremendous healthcare and research assets that are already providing significant value to the region and society as a whole,” Faison added. “I am excited at the opportunity to work with the University’s dedicated faculty, staff and students to build on these resources and further opportunities for innovation, research and technology transfer.”

Faison retired in 2019 after a close to four-decade career in the United States Navy. Over his tenure, he rose to the rank of vice admiral and served as the 38th Surgeon General of the Navy and chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery from 2015 to 2019. In that role, Faison led a global healthcare network of 63,000 medical personnel stationed around the world who provide high quality health care to more than one million people.

Faison is a native of Rocky River, Ohio and received his baccalaureate degree from Wake Forest University. He joined the Navy in 1980 and earned his doctorate degree in medicine and surgery from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1984. He completed post-graduate training in general pediatrics at Naval Hospital San Diego and fellowship training in neurodevelopmental pediatrics at the University of Washington.

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