Fisk University’s Board of Trustees announced Girl Scout Leader Dr. Agenia Walker Clark as the university’s new president.
Clark will be the 18th president and the third female head in Fisk’s history.
“To serve a new generation of brilliant, socially minded students—not unlike their counterparts of decades past, like W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, John Lewis and Dr. Diane Nash—is surely the honor of my lifetime,” said Clark. “No institution of higher-ed has a richer legacy—or a richer promise for the future—than Fisk.”
Fisk University launched a search for a new president after former president Vann R. Newkirk’s departure in August 2022. Board Chairman Frank Sims served as interim president while a committee conducted a search for a permanent president.
Nashville Business Journal named Clark 2021’s “Nashvillian of the Year” and named one of “Nashville’s 100 Most Powerful People” from 2015-2020.
Clark earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She earned her Doctorate in Leadership from Vanderbilt University.
Clark most recently served as CEO for the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee, where she served for 19 years. During her tenure, she oversaw the construction of new facilities, increased operational efficiencies, increased its reserve, and transformed the agency into one of the highest performing councils out of the 111 councils in the Girl Scout Network.
Additionally, Clark currently serves on the corporate board of directors for FirstBank Financial Corporation, the board of trustees for Belmont and Simmons Universities, and is a trustee emerita, a former exemplary trustee, on the board of the Haslam School of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Prior to her time with the Girl Scouts, Clark was the Vice President of Human Resources for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation, Senior Director of Human Resources at Vanderbilt University, and served as a manager of government relations for Canadian telecommunications provider Nortel Networks.
“Dr. Clark’s lifelong dedication to improving the lives of young people, along with her unique combination of fundraising and brand-building skills, are exactly what Fisk needs today,” said Fisk Board of Trustees Chair Juliette Pryor.
