Raleigh:  On Thursday, December 6, the State Board of Community Colleges voted unanimously to select Dr. Scott Ralls to succeed H. Martin Lancaster as president of the North Carolina Community College System.   Ralls will begin work at the System Office on April 1, 2008.  He will be paid an annual salary of $275,000.

 

Ralls, who is 43, has served as president at Craven Community College for the past five years.  Prior to that, he was the vice president for Economic and Workforce Development at the NC Community College System, director of Economic Development at the System Office, and a director at the North Carolina Department of Commerce.  He obtained a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and a Master of Arts, Industrial /Organizational Psychology, both from the University of Maryland, and a B.S. in Industrial Relations and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Ralls is the son of a Methodist minister who moved his family around the state. He told the board he knew North Carolina and would “work hard for its people and for you.  I won’t let you down.”  He added that as a community college president, he sees the “little miracles” on his campus every day. “I see what role our colleges and the System play in changing lives.”

 

“This is the most important decision this Board will have to make…in this best period for education,” said Board Chair Hilda Pinnix-Ragland as she convened the board meeting Thursday at 8 a.m.

 

In open session, board members discussed the procedures to be followed during the interviews with the three finalists.  In addition to Ralls, the finalists were Kennon Briggs, vice president for Business and Finance for the NC Community College System, and Dr. Philip Day, Jr., chancellor of City College of San Francisco.

 

The Presidential Search Committee, chaired by Herbert Watkins, had prepared a list of questions to be asked of every candidate.  The full board voted to adhere to those questions, with reasonable follow-up permitted.   Each board member received a score sheet he or she was to complete in evaluating the finalists; cumulative scores constituted one "summary factor" in the decision process.

 

The full board conducted the interviews of the three finalists in closed session.  The board returned to open session to conduct the final vote and announce the choice of Ralls.  Pinnix-Ragland said, “This is a day we will look back on with pride.  We look forward to working with Dr. Ralls as he carries the System forward.”

 

Ralls will be the seventh president of the third largest system in the country.  The North Carolina Community College System enrolls more than 800,000 students in 58 comprehensive community colleges. Internationally recognized for the scope and quality of its programs, the System is North Carolina's primary provider of workforce preparation and adult education. For details, visit www.nccommunitycolleges.edu.

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Click here for background information on the  search process for the System President.