Dr. Agenia Walker Clark, 18th President for Fisk University

Dr. Agenia Cark was announced as the 18th President for Fisk University in October 2023.  She joins the University after years of experience in higher education, serving on the boards of the Tennessee Board of Regents, Simmons University and Belmont University, and is an emerita on the Advisory Board of the University of Tennessee’s Haslam School of Business.

She was the president and CEO of Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee.  Prior to joining Girl Scouts, Dr. Clark was vice president of human resources for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation , senior director of human resources at Vanderbilt University and worked In government relations, marketing, business ethics and human resources at Nortel Networks, a multi-national telecommunications corporation.

Dr. Clark was recently honored as the 2021 “Nashvillian of the Year” and is a member of Women Corporate Directors (“WCD”), where she is the co-chair of the Tennessee chapter.  She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), Nashville’s Agenda and is a member of the 2016 Class of Leadership Tennessee and 1996 Class of Leadership Nashville.

Dr. Clark serves on the corporate board of directors fir FirstBank Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK).  On the First Bank Board , she is an independent director serving on the Risk Committee, the Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Government Committees.  Prior to FirstBank, she was a founding corporate director for Avenue Bank (2007), one of Nashville’s fastest growing banks before an IPO offering in February of 2015 and a September 2016 merger with Pinnacle Bank.

Dr. Clark has been recognized in the Nashville Business Journal as one of “Nashville’s 100 Most Powerful People” for 7 years beginning in 2015. An inductee into the Academy for Women of Achievement, she’s a “Nashville Post” Person-in-charge (2014-2022)

Dr. Clark has a bachelor of science degree and a master’s of business administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  She completed her doctorate at Vanderbilt University.

In her spare time, Dr. Clark enjoys family trips, running, sprint triathlons, cooking and her book club. Most recently, she ran the November 2021 “New York City 50th Marathon” and is excited to be a qualified finisher.  She currently resides in Brentwood, Tennessee with her husband, Charles Clark, Jr. They have two adult children.