North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University elected a new chancellor on Friday.
James Martin II, the newly elected chancellor, is an accomplished civil engineer who has led engineering and STEM initiatives at three large public research universities.
Martin’s appointment at North Carolina A&T will begin on Aug. 15. He succeeds Harold Martin Sr., who will retire after 15 years as chancellor.
Martin served four years as the U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering in Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering. He has decades of experience as an engineering professor, institute director, dean and leader of science initiatives at major public universities, including Clemson University and Virginia Tech.
“During his career, he has promoted academic innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration and improved organizational culture. He will now lead the nation’s largest historically Black university on a trajectory to become a top-tier research institution,” said an announcement of his election.
“James Martin is the right leader to engineer North Carolina A&T’s continuing rise,” said UNC System President Peter Hans. “He believes in what he calls ‘impatient optimism,’ a productive sense of possibility in what can be achieved when people think across disciplines, feel a sense of shared purpose, and commit to an ambitious vision. It’s exactly the kind of mindset that will help affirm the university’s status as one of the nation’s best research institutions and engines of social mobility.”
As dean at Pittsburgh, he oversaw an engineering program with 2,900 undergraduates, 850 graduate students and 200 faculty. There he raised research dollars by 50 percent, built strategic partnerships with industry and government, and increased diversity, enrollment and graduation rates. Previously, he chaired the civil engineering department at Clemson University and was the founding executive director of Clemson’s Risk Engineering and Systems Analytics Institute (RESA).
“North Carolina A&T is a recognized national leader in harnessing technology and access to learning to unlock human potential,” Martin said. “That’s one of many reasons why it’s so exciting to have been chosen to lead the university at a moment when America is in particular need of the very things that North Carolina A&T does best. Our students, faculty, staff and alumni are on an incredible ascent, having accomplished so much in recent years. I look forward to joining them on that journey and ensuring that we continue to build on A&T’s exceptional momentum as we set ambitious new sights for the months and years ahead.”
His numerous national, state and university awards for research, teaching, scholarship and service include the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Norman Medal, the highest honor for published work in his field. He was also inducted into the Virginia Tech Department of Civil Engineering’s Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2015.
“Dr. Martin is an exceptional leader with a strong vision for where we can take our university in the coming years,” said A&T Board of Trustees Chair Kimberly Bullock Gatling. “North Carolina A&T has enjoyed enormous success in recent years, and I have no doubt that Dr. Martin will continue the university’s strong ascent and increase our national presence as a doctoral, research land-grant HBCU.”
“We were fortunate in this national search to draw a very competitive field of applicants and nominees from across the country. It was gratifying to see a certain standard of quality in leadership throughout the field,” said Search Advisory Committee Chair Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, former chair of the A&T Board of Trustees.
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