SYNERGY - Juneteenth 2022

Zeriah K. Folston

Story By: Nikki J. Davis

Whether it correlates to his job as Interim Director of Equity and Inclusion for the City of Gainesville, or his personal life, Zeriah K. Folston has basically lived the words he can still hear his grandfather’s deep, manly voice asking, “There are three things God cares about. Do you know what they are?”

While he didn’t the first time he was asked — reciting a slough of the typical answers from love to peace to faith to friendship — the words his grandfather answered have become his mantra: “People. People. People.”

Zeriah grew up in Alachua County, graduating from P.K. Yonge High School, and continuing on to get his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and master’s degree from the University of Central Florida. The degrees were stones to strengthen his path of helping those people, people, people his grandfather spoke of and parents demonstrated.

But as with anyone in the line of success, it’s not always easy. In fact, Folston will tell you about it. About growing up with holes in the ceiling. Water leaking through the roof. The toilet pipes leaving a residue of rust regardless of how often they were washed. Carpet that wasn’t really supposed to be the color it appeared.

If you add in a father who was a drug and alcohol user, it could lead to the defeat of a childhood. But, instead, it led Zeriah to focus on the two people in life who have inspired him the most. “My dad went from being a heavy drug and alcohol user, to finding Christ, to joining the Army, to becoming a pharmacist,” Zeriah said. “And at that time, he was one of the few people of color to graduate from the University of Florida’s Pharmacy school. He set an example. And then he became a pastor and he taught me to just be a lover of people. Everyone deserves compassion and love.”

His mother was defining in his life. It was his mother, he will tell you, who washed dishes and later worked in the anesthesiology department at Alachua General Hospital, to help her husband at- tend pharmacy school. It was her faith in believing in her husband. It was a true inspiration about commitment and perseverance.

“Because of her sacrifice, my father, sister, brother and I have degrees from the University of Florida,” Zeriah said. While he had the best of intentions of earning his master’s degree in nonprofit management, he had a defining moment that changed his career trajectory … a meeting his father arranged with the city manager in his hometown of Alachua, Fla. That one chance meeting was enough to see him realize how much he could help people in the role of public administration.

So after earning his master’s degree, he served as a budget analyst for Alachua County. He then became the assistant supervisor of elections of Alachua County. In 2020, he became the policy oversight administrator for the City of Gainesville, and was named the interim director of equity and inclusion in September 2021.

Because, he’ll tell you, he was raised by leaders. From his family to the community he was raised in. And it was leaders with diverse backgrounds that surrounded him and wanted to nurture him. That’s why, even today, he loves engaging in conversation with anyone around him. And those leaders are what led him to his current role.

In his current role he hopes to promote, and even challenge, the status quo for diversity. By diversity, he is not only referring solely to color, but to age, sex, sexual orientation, disabilities — any and every detail, to make sure there is balance within the city infrastructure, as well as the community itself.

“I’m here to bridge gaps in our system,” Zeriah said. “I see what we’re trying to do, and I see how we can do it together. I will never aspire to cut or take from one group to give to another. We should not leave anyone behind.”

“Collaboration is good. You bring your idea and I bring mine and we figure out a way to merge the two. However, synergy is what I prefer because it says, ‘Let’s sit down together and develop an idea together.’ The thought is that the idea we develop together, organically, is better than the ideas we could develop on our own,” said Zeriah.

Which lends to his belief that, “We’re better together than we are apart.” That, of course, comes with challenges because he wants others to experience synergy. He not only wants them to come to the table, but wants them to feel heard, and to be heard.

“You can’t be your best self without others that don’t look like you or act like you or come from the same socioeconomic background as you,” Zeriah smiled. “You need them and they need you to become our best selves. Everyone’s voice should carry weight.”

“It’s never been about promotions or titles to me. Those are just things that come with serving. I don’t think about my greatest accomplishments,” he said, when asked, “Because there’s still so much more that pleasantly agitates me. It’s itching me in the right way because there’s so much more I can do …”

There are two things he’s most proud of: his family and finding the perfect spouse, which he encourages others to seek.

“Finding a spouse who supports not only the natural gifts you have, but the passion you have. And understands it. That is so important. Because what I build for others, I build out of my own family and care and love for them,” he said.

“We don’t get here alone. We all needed people, people, people along our journey,” he said. “Some look like you and some don’t, some have more than what you have and some don’t, some have been through less and some haven’t yet, all of them have had value in your life to get you to here.”