SPEAKER — Bio — James H. Faison, III

James H. Fai­son, III: Born in New Hanover Coun­ty and raised in Pen­der Coun­ty, North Car­oli­na, James con­sid­ers both New Hanover and Pen­der Coun­ties his home.  He grad­u­at­ed from Pen­der High School, where he served in lead­er­ship roles from the Pres­i­dent of the JROTC Bat­tal­ion Com­man­der, Senior class and Stu­dent Body includ­ing cap­tain and quar­ter­back of the foot­ball team.  He attend­ed North Car­oli­na Cen­tral Uni­ver­si­ty on a full foot­ball schol­ar­ship where he also became co-cap­tain of the foot­ball team.  He is also a cum laude Bach­e­lors of Arts Degree in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Jurist Doc­tor Degree recip­i­ent from NCCU and NCCU School of Law, respectively.

Fai­son served as a staff attor­ney with Legal Ser­vices of the Low­er Cape Fear in Wilm­ing­ton, North Car­oli­na where he spe­cial­ized in pub­lic ben­e­fits lit­i­ga­tion and rep­re­sent­ing indi­gent clients and vet­er­ans with dis­abil­i­ty claims through­out sev­en coun­ties.  He also served as an adjunct pro­fes­sor at Cape Fear Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, teach­ing Legal Sys­tems to para­le­gals stu­dents.  He lat­er served as Assis­tant Dis­trict Attor­ney for Pen­der and New Hanover Counties.

Fai­son was appoint­ed by for­mer Gov­er­nor James B. Hunt, Jr. to serve as a Dis­trict Court Judge for Pen­der and New Hanover Coun­ties which estab­lished Judge Fai­son as the first African Amer­i­can male to become a Dis­trict Court Judge in the his­to­ry of the Fifth Judi­cial Dis­trict.  Fol­low­ing his appoint­ment, Judge Fai­son has been reelect­ed by the peo­ple of New Hanover and Pen­der Coun­ties for each suc­ces­sive term.  As a Dis­trict Court Judge, he pre­sides over juve­nile cas­es, Fam­i­ly Court, Drug Treat­ment Court, and DWI Treat­ment Court.  Judge Fai­son was appoint­ed by for­mer Gov­er­nor Pat McCro­ry to serve as Chair­man of the Statewide DWI Task Force of North Car­oli­na. Judge Fai­son also serves as Chair­man of the Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee for Drug Treat­ment Courts for North Carolina.

Judge Fai­son has been rec­og­nized for his unique abil­i­ty to effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate with youth­ful offend­ers and respect­ed for his judi­cial tem­pera­ment.  He is described as fair, approach­able, and firm. He spends much of his time com­pas­sion­ate­ly focus­ing and sup­port­ing orga­ni­za­tions com­bat­ing the plight of youth­ful offend­ers, fam­i­lies in cri­sis, absen­tee fathers and bat­tling the dev­as­ta­tion caused by the opi­oid epi­dem­ic. Fai­son serves the youth of our com­mu­ni­ties as a men­tor, moti­va­tion­al speak­er, and fre­quent guest speak­er at area schools.  As a vol­un­teer, he pre­sides over high school mock tri­al com­pe­ti­tions, teen court ses­sions, and is an instruc­tor with Street Safe Defen­sive Dri­ving Program.

As a found­ing mem­ber of the New Hanover Coun­ty Blue Rib­bon Com­mis­sion on the Pre­ven­tion of Youth Vio­lence, Judge Fai­son co-authored the Commission’s Res­o­lu­tion Against Bul­ly­ing, adopt­ed by the Wilm­ing­ton City Coun­cil, New Hanover Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers and Board of Edu­ca­tion, and the Pen­der Coun­ty Board of Com­mis­sion­ers and Board of Edu­ca­tion.  He par­tic­i­pates at schools and oth­er pub­lic forums to pro­mote anti-vio­lence and anti-bul­ly­ing ini­tia­tives with par­ents and stu­dents.  Fai­son also serves our youth and com­mu­ni­ty as a board mem­ber of numer­ous organizations.

Pas­tor Fai­son serves pas­tor of Byrd’s Chapel Mis­sion­ary Church, Rose Hill, NC.  His pas­toral min­istry began there in 1998.  He serves as the direc­tor of the in the Kenans­ville East­ern Mis­sion­ary Bap­tist Asso­ci­a­tion (KEMBA) Youth Coun­cil con­sist­ing of approx­i­mate­ly 49 church­es. One of Faison’s most fre­quent­ly stat­ed expres­sions to the youth is “Prepa­ra­tion plus oppor­tu­ni­ty equals suc­cess”. Each year, he over­sees the KEMBA Youth Activ­i­ty Day, with as many as 600 youth and adult participants.

Fai­son has received numer­ous awards for com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice.  Fai­son loves and cher­ish­es his wife of 27+ years, Angela, a retired envi­ron­men­tal plan­ner, and their daugh­ter, Christa, an ele­men­tary school teacher.

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