diff --git a/dspace-api/src/test/java/org/dspace/AbstractIntegrationTestWithDatabase.java b/dspace-api/src/test/java/org/dspace/AbstractIntegrationTestWithDatabase.java
index 9bacbb97ee..76b3fe131b 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/test/java/org/dspace/AbstractIntegrationTestWithDatabase.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/test/java/org/dspace/AbstractIntegrationTestWithDatabase.java
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ import org.dspace.app.launcher.ScriptLauncher;
 import org.dspace.app.scripts.handler.impl.TestDSpaceRunnableHandler;
 import org.dspace.authority.AuthoritySearchService;
 import org.dspace.authority.MockAuthoritySolrServiceImpl;
-import org.dspace.authorize.AuthorizeException;
 import org.dspace.builder.AbstractBuilder;
+import org.dspace.builder.EPersonBuilder;
 import org.dspace.content.Community;
 import org.dspace.core.Context;
 import org.dspace.core.I18nUtil;
@@ -127,19 +127,16 @@ public class AbstractIntegrationTestWithDatabase extends AbstractDSpaceIntegrati
             EPersonService ePersonService = EPersonServiceFactory.getInstance().getEPersonService();
             eperson = ePersonService.findByEmail(context, "test@email.com");
             if (eperson == null) {
-                // This EPerson creation should only happen once (i.e. for first test run)
-                log.info("Creating initial EPerson (email=test@email.com) for Unit Tests");
-                eperson = ePersonService.create(context);
-                eperson.setFirstName(context, "first");
-                eperson.setLastName(context, "last");
-                eperson.setEmail("test@email.com");
-                eperson.setCanLogIn(true);
-                eperson.setLanguage(context, I18nUtil.getDefaultLocale().getLanguage());
-                ePersonService.setPassword(eperson, password);
-                // actually save the eperson to unit testing DB
-                ePersonService.update(context, eperson);
+                // Create test EPerson for usage in all tests
+                log.info("Creating Test EPerson (email=test@email.com) for Integration Tests");
+                eperson = EPersonBuilder.createEPerson(context)
+                                        .withNameInMetadata("first", "last")
+                                        .withEmail("test@email.com")
+                                        .withCanLogin(true)
+                                        .withLanguage(I18nUtil.getDefaultLocale().getLanguage())
+                                        .withPassword(password)
+                                        .build();
             }
-
             // Set our global test EPerson as the current user in DSpace
             context.setCurrentUser(eperson);
 
@@ -148,26 +145,23 @@ public class AbstractIntegrationTestWithDatabase extends AbstractDSpaceIntegrati
 
             admin = ePersonService.findByEmail(context, "admin@email.com");
             if (admin == null) {
-                // This EPerson creation should only happen once (i.e. for first test run)
-                log.info("Creating initial EPerson (email=admin@email.com) for Unit Tests");
-                admin = ePersonService.create(context);
-                admin.setFirstName(context, "first (admin)");
-                admin.setLastName(context, "last (admin)");
-                admin.setEmail("admin@email.com");
-                admin.setCanLogIn(true);
-                admin.setLanguage(context, I18nUtil.getDefaultLocale().getLanguage());
-                ePersonService.setPassword(admin, password);
-                // actually save the eperson to unit testing DB
-                ePersonService.update(context, admin);
+                // Create test Administrator for usage in all tests
+                log.info("Creating Test Admin EPerson (email=admin@email.com) for Integration Tests");
+                admin = EPersonBuilder.createEPerson(context)
+                                      .withNameInMetadata("first (admin)", "last (admin)")
+                                      .withEmail("admin@email.com")
+                                      .withCanLogin(true)
+                                      .withLanguage(I18nUtil.getDefaultLocale().getLanguage())
+                                      .withPassword(password)
+                                      .build();
+
+                // Add Test Administrator to the ADMIN group in test database
                 GroupService groupService = EPersonServiceFactory.getInstance().getGroupService();
                 Group adminGroup = groupService.findByName(context, Group.ADMIN);
                 groupService.addMember(context, adminGroup, admin);
             }
 
             context.restoreAuthSystemState();
-        } catch (AuthorizeException ex) {
-            log.error("Error creating initial eperson or default groups", ex);
-            fail("Error creating initial eperson or default groups in AbstractUnitTest init()");
         } catch (SQLException ex) {
             log.error(ex.getMessage(), ex);
             fail("SQL Error on AbstractUnitTest init()");
diff --git a/dspace-server-webapp/src/test/java/org/dspace/app/rest/test/AbstractWebClientIntegrationTest.java b/dspace-server-webapp/src/test/java/org/dspace/app/rest/test/AbstractWebClientIntegrationTest.java
index e4ef1c741f..f7ec1e941d 100644
--- a/dspace-server-webapp/src/test/java/org/dspace/app/rest/test/AbstractWebClientIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/dspace-server-webapp/src/test/java/org/dspace/app/rest/test/AbstractWebClientIntegrationTest.java
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import org.dspace.AbstractIntegrationTestWithDatabase;
 import org.dspace.app.TestApplication;
 import org.dspace.app.rest.utils.DSpaceConfigurationInitializer;
 import org.dspace.app.rest.utils.DSpaceKernelInitializer;
+import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
 import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
@@ -64,6 +65,21 @@ public class AbstractWebClientIntegrationTest extends AbstractIntegrationTestWit
     @Autowired
     protected ApplicationContext applicationContext;
 
+    @Override
+    @Before
+    public void setUp() throws Exception {
+        super.setUp();
+
+        // Because AbstractWebClientIntegrationTest starts a new webserver, we need to ensure *everything* created by
+        // the "super.setUp()" script is committed to the test database. Otherwise, the new webserver may not see the
+        // created test data in the database.
+        // NOTE: This commit() does NOT occur in AbstractIntegrationTestDatabase because it will remove newly created
+        // Hibernate entities from the current Hibernate session. For most ITs we don't want that as it may result
+        // in "could not initialize proxy - no Session" errors when using those entities in other tests (or other tests
+        // would need to reload each test entity back into the Hibernate session)
+        context.commit();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Get client TestRestTemplate for making HTTP requests to test webserver
      * @return TestRestTemplate