The Charleston Southern University (CSU) Board of Trustees announced the appointment of B. Keith Faulkner as the University’s fourth president. He will begin serving his alma mater in early October 2023. The selection followed an extensive nationwide search led by CarterBaldwin—the same executive search firm that landed outgoing president Dr. Dondi Costin at CSU five years prior.
With 20 years of higher education experience, Keith currently serves as president and dean of Appalachian School of Law in Virginia. Prior to this, he served as the dean of Liberty University School of Law and the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business at Campbell University. He also served as interim dean at Campbell University’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law. Over his career, he and his teams have launched online programs, developed innovative partnerships with industry, enjoyed success in fundraising, and many other notable accomplishments. While at Liberty, Keith doubled law school enrollment in five years and achieved a 95% bar passage rate.
Prior to Liberty, Keith led Campbell University’s Lundy-Fetterman School of Business as dean and professor of business. He served in other roles at Campbell at the law school including associate dean for external relations, executive associate dean for academic and administrative affairs, and vice dean for administration and external relations. Keith also taught courses as an adjunct and visiting professor of business.
A first-generation high school graduate, Keith entered the U.S. Navy upon graduation and worked as a nuclear power plant operator and technician. It was the Naval Nuclear Power School that brought him to Charleston and eventually to CSU. He began his post-graduate career practicing law in the areas of insurance defense, criminal defense, estate planning, family law, and real estate litigation and transactions.
Keith earned his JD and an MBA from Campbell University and holds an LLM in litigation management from Baylor University. He earned his BS in business administration-finance from CSU, where he also won the Outstanding Business Administration Student Award his senior year.
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About Charleston Southern University
Charleston Southern University is an independent, comprehensive Christian university grounded in the liberal arts tradition, affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Founded as the Baptist College at Charleston in 1964 upon the principle that students should have an opportunity for a quality education under the guidance of Christian faculty, the institution changed its name to Charleston Southern University in 1990 to reflect the offering of graduate programs. CSU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award baccalaureate, master’s, and doctorate degrees.
