Speeches and articles	Narrative biography
Reports to the State Board of Community Colleges	Vita

 

Dr. R. Scott Ralls is the seventh president of the North Carolina Community College System. With 58 colleges serving approximately 900,000 students each year, the NC Community College System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the United States and is internationally recognized for its programs to foster economic and workforce development.

 

Having assumed the presidency on May 1, 2008, Dr. Ralls is the first former community college president to serve in this post in 30 years and only the second former North Carolina community college president to hold this position.  In his brief tenure, he has successfully led efforts to achieve the first weighted-funding for technical education in the System’s history, redesigned customized training programs to provide greater support for existing businesses that focus on technology and productivity investments, and helped shape the System’s Creating Success budgeting and advocacy campaign that is resulting in enhancements to equipment and healthcare program funding. He has been a close collaborator with Governor Beverly Perdue in the creation of her JobsNOW economic transition and accelerated job training strategies, led the creation of the system-wide Code Green initiative that fosters clean energy job training and campus sustainability incentives, and implemented a system-wide approach to establish guiding goals focused on student success and credential completion.

 

Between 2002 and 2008, Dr. Ralls served as the President of Craven Community College during a time when the college achieved record enrollment growth and fundraising support. In addition, the college opened the Institute for Aeronautical Technology, developed the Bosch and Siemens Advanced Manufacturing Center and led the statewide redesign of information technology programs. Craven Community College also achieved acclaim for fostering unique educational partnerships, including its University Connections program with East Carolina University and NC State University’s College of Engineering, and Craven Early College, a model technology-based, Early College High School.  In 2007, Dr. Ralls received the Freedom Fund Award from the Craven County NAACP for his “efforts to actively identify and incorporate the true needs of the community into the mission of Craven Community College.”

 

Dr. Ralls has been an active leader in North Carolina’s high school transformation efforts as an original member of the North Carolina New Schools Board of Directors. Almost one-third of the Early College High Schools in the United States are today located on North Carolina community college campuses. Dr. Ralls also has worked with the British government in its review of community college-equivalent Further Education (FE) colleges in England and, in 2007, was named the 10^th honorary fellow of Warwickshire College in the United Kingdom.

 

Dr. Ralls has previously held workforce development leadership positions at the state and national levels, including as Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development for the NC Community College System where he fostered collaborative programs with North Carolina’s biotechnology and information technology industries. He also has previously served as the Director of the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Employment and Training where he worked closely with the state’s Workforce Development Boards and provided state oversight of job training programs for disadvantaged individuals and those affected by plant closings. At the national level, he served as the Manager of Workforce Programs for the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he championed workforce development initiatives through the national network of manufacturing extension centers. Also while in Washington, D.C., he was a policy specialist with the U.S. Department of Labor where he authored the national report, Integrating Technology with Workers in the New American Workplace, and was a recipient of the Secretary’s Exceptional Achievement Award.

 

Dr. Ralls holds a Bachelor of Science degree with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland. His research focused on technology implementation, workforce training and issues impacting older workers. He also holds an appointment as an Adjunct Full Professor in the College of Education at NC State University.

 

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