Each week this campus buzzes with the rigorous collegiate life of students and faculty of Washington Adventist University. There is a pulse that pervades the grounds as the work of Adventist Education takes hold and plants seeds that may one day change the world. With his finger on the pulse of this one hundred and twelve year old institution is University President, Weymouth Spence, Ed.D, RT.
President Spence was born and raised in Jamaica. He had ambitions to develop his craft in the health profession and attended West Indies College, now Northern Caribbean University. He arrived in Maryland around 1996 and eventually attended Kettering College, studying Radiography.
Weymouth, now with a wife and two children, took a position teaching Radiography in Connecticut. He would spend the next 17 years teaching and expanding his education until he took the position of Dean of Health Professions at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland.
God was working on his heart and with a burden for ministry, Dr. Spence decided to take a leap into church ministry, becoming the Vice President for Academic Administration at Atlantic Union College. Subsequently Columbia Union College offered him a call to become President. He says, "I want to invest in education with the expertise that I've been given in the private sector and return it to a church that offered me so much in my early education."
Under President Weymouth Spence's leadership Columbia Union College was rebranded and became what we know today as Washington Adventist University.
"The students get me up and going in the morning. They come to us from all over the world with a multitude of cultures and needs. Jesus met people where they were. He didn't care where they were in life or where they came from; he was interested in their success. I want to follow that example." President Spence loves to spend time on campus with WAU students. He says, "Wherever the students are you'll find me encouraging, celebrating, cheering and guiding where necessary."
Sitting in his office he says, "The joy is putting together a team that is able to put a vision together that can become a reality for students"
Washington Adventist University sits in an advantageous location in the U.S., giving students access to the nation's capital and all the careers and internship opportunities that come with proximity. President Spence believes these opportunities have to be taken advantage of.
"The original legacy of this institution was in the ideal of the gateway to service. I want to deliver on that legacy and prepare students for the global stage"
