Growing People and Places Locally and Globally 

Meet Erskine Ramsay “Chuck” Faush, a man with many roles and a magnificent vision. His life journey illustrates his relentless dedication to empowering individuals, building stronger communities, and transforming places.

Faush has a rich history of leadership in both private and public sectors. As the former president of Summit Media Entertainment and a senior official in Birmingham, his work blends seamlessly with his deep-rooted connection to community and economic development. At Summit, he was responsible for national events and initiatives as well as playing a pivotal role in Birmingham, serving as Chief of Staff to Mayor William Bell. One of Faush’s highest achievements was leading the team and unparalleled contribution to the 50 Years Forward multi city Civil Rights anniversary campaign. This significant effort resulted in Birmingham’s Civil Rights District receiving the Presidential National Monument designation.

After leaving a lasting impact in Birmingham, Faush took his talent and passion to the Chicago Urban League serving as the Senior Vice President, Chief Development & Innovation Officer and now leads community and economic development at Nicor, a Southern Company.

In a move designed to bring transformative change to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students, Erskine Faush launched the 250X2025 initiative. The purpose is to secure 250 internships, specifically aimed at aiding students to become creators, innovators, and disrupters. By 2025, this initiative aspires to translate these internships into $100,000 jobs generating an earnings impact of $250M and contribute to societal advancements.

The announcement at Smart City NYC  is the launch of the HBCU Research & Policy Institute (RPI) focused on Ready, the intelligent interview. Ready for students is a an exercise that measures and aligns their talents, skills with industry, sectors and businesses. For companies, Ready prioritizes talent, reduces bias and increases fairness and ensures next year is next now job – career placement. As well, our large language model (“LLM”) tool, trained with additional African American content for use by students is called Latimer built to arm students with intelligence and agility beyond “search”, while minimizing risk and mitigating bias and data deficiencies of black and brown historical events.

Faush’s leadership as Chair of The Yard, an HBCU platform, has been nothing short of extraordinary in the educational sector. Under his guidance, this platform awarded $1M in pitch competition scholarships and grants and pioneered the “Dream Spaces” at Tennessee State and Alabama A&M Universities over the last four years. This endeavor highlights his steadfast commitment to education and the empowerment of the next generation.

But Faush’s story doesn’t end here. His family legacy and his personal achievements journey are inspiring. Mom was an educator both a s a teacher and assistant principal and he like his father is an ordained Elder in the AME Zion Church, making significant contributions to the church’s Alabama-Florida Conference.

His vision extends beyond his already remarkable contributions. Embarking on the ambitious 250X2025 initiative, Faush aims to secure 250 “emagineer” internships, ensuring a path for many to land $100K jobs by 2025 generating a  $250 million earnings impact over a decade. It is the second phase of the HBCU initiative with Faush’s commitment of fostering creators, innovators, and disruptors. His forward-thinking approaches include AI smart interview career builders, propelling job seekers into successful careers.

A recognized “producer of possibilities,” Faush’s philosophy is clear: he is dedicated to growing people and places as a curator of ideas, a developer of projects and communities, and a remarkable communicator of stories, all linked together. His remarkable achievements include the development of influential campaigns like the 50 YEARS FORWARD civil rights campaign in Birmingham, the infrastructure innovation and inclusion campaign with the US CONF MAYORS, and the “We are Pembroke” campaign, which recently earned international accolades.

Faush says, “our team of like minded, forward thinking doers not only give back but looking forward to matchmaking mentors and mentees in a see who you can be campaign that starts at an internship and moves to a job and ends with an incredible career.” He’s inviting both job givers and job seekers to join the movement.