Helen Faith, FAAC®, joins us as the Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment and Student Financial Services at the University of Virginia, August 2024. She has 24 years of financial aid and higher education experience and has previously worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lane Community College, the University of Western States, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland State University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. She earned her bachelor's degree in literature at UC Santa Cruz and a master's degree in education: policy, foundations, and administration at Portland State University, and has completed doctoral coursework in educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has served in elected and volunteer leadership roles at the state, regional, and national levels, and is a past president of Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (WASFAA) and OASFAA (Oregon). She has served on the board of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) as National Chair, WASFAA Regional Representative, and Representative-at-Large. She has also participated in negotiated rulemaking with the U.S. Department of Education and has collaborated with several higher education associations on financial aid research and analysis projects. Helen is passionate about financial aid and higher education as critical engines for social change with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Helen was born and raised in Southern California; mother immigrated to the US from Hong Kong in her twenties to attend college and met her father, an Illinois native who grew up in Los Angeles. She comes from a family of musicians, piano, violin/fiddle, guitar, and singing. Helen loves to cook, knit, read, and garden. She stays active through yoga, cycling, dancing, and running. Helen moved to Charlottesville with her spouse, 14- and 16-year-old sons, along with two shelter cats named Starsky and Hutch and lab-hound mix, Claire.