Adam Hasner

President Adam Hasner was appointed Florida Atlantic University’s eight president by a unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees Feb. 10, 2025, and was confirmed by the Florida State University System Board of Governors Feb. 20. He took office March 10. Hasner has long championed his “hometown university” and quickly established student success as his primary focus. As the university’s chief executive officer, Hasner oversees an institution that serves more than 30,000 students with more than 170 degree programs across six campuses from Broward County north to St. Lucie County. One of the largest employers in South Florida, Florida Atlantic has nearly 3,500 employees with an annual operating budget of more than $1.2 billion. Raised in Palm Beach County, Hasner is a product of the local public school system and the son of two educators. He earned a juris doctor from Florida State University and a bachelor’s degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland. He resides in Boca Raton with his wife, Jillian, who is the chief executive officer of the mentoring and scholarship nonprofit organization Take Stock in Children. Hasner served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2002 to 2010, including two terms as House Majority Leader, where he championed initiatives in health care, education and economic development. His legislative accomplishments include working with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to establish Florida’s life sciences industry with significant funding for biomedical research, while leading the efforts to secure funding to establish FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. He was honored twice as American Cancer Society Legislator of the Year for his leadership on Florida’s $120 million annual investment in biomedical and cancer research. This funding supported peer-reviewed competitive grants for scientific investigators, institutions, and clinical trials in the fight against cancer. Hasner also championed FAU’s ocean energy initiative, sponsoring key legislation in 2006 and 2008 that laid the foundation for creating the Office of the Ocean Economy at FAU. He also played a pivotal role in securing $43 million for FAU’s current College of Engineering building, the first state-funded higher education facility to achieve LEED Platinum certification. He is also the author of the nation’s strongest anti-hazing legislation to combat college hazing, earning the Anti-Hazing Hero Award from the Hazing Prevention Network. Beyond his prior professional career, Hasner served actively in community service, serving for twenty years on the board of trustees for Boca Raton Regional Hospital; on the dean’s advisory board for FAU’s College of Business; and as chair of the Palm Beach County Early Learning Coalition, the non-profit responsible for implementing the state’s voluntary pre-kindergarten program locally.