Faulkner State Community College, a public two-year institution located in Baldwin County in southwest Alabama, has three campuses located in Bay Minette, Gulf Shores, and Fairhope. The Bay Minette campus is the administrative campus. The College, which was one of the 13 original two-year colleges created by an act of the Alabama Legislature in 1963, is under the authority of the State Board of Education. Faulkner State is a member of the Alabama Community College System that consists of twenty-one comprehensive community colleges, four technical colleges, and one military institution; Athens State University, and; extensive workforce development initiatives, including the Alabama Industrial Development Training Institute and the Alabama Technology Network.

　　Faulkner State has undergone several transitions and name changes in its lifetime. For the first few months of operation, it was called Bay Minette State Junior College, but in early 1966, the State Board of Education named the College William Lowndes Yancey State Junior College in honor of a pre-Civil War statesman and educator. In 1970, the name changed to James H. Faulkner State Junior College to honor Mr. James H. Faulkner, a prominent citizen of Baldwin County. The College name was changed again by the State Board of Education in August 1992, to Faulkner State Community College to more accurately reflect its mission and purpose.

　　The College has grown from an initial enrollment of 401 students and one campus in 1965, to a current combined enrollment of more than 5,000 students on all three campuses. Faulkner State began offering courses at the Fairhope site in 1970, and in 1975, the College added a permanent staff, student services, and expanded offerings of programs and services to the community. The Fairhope Campus has been housed both at the Fairhope High School and at the old Fairhope Library building. In 1987, the present Fairhope site was acquired. Originally the home of the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education, the Fairhope site was entered in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior on July 1, 1988. In 1985, the College opened a site in Foley and moved to the present Gulf Shores Campus location in Fall 1993.