North Carolina A&T announces new chancellor

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, the nation’s largest HBCU, has new leadership.

James Martin II has been elected chancellor of N.C. A&T by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. The current vice chancellor of STEM Innovation and Research at the University of Pittsburgh is a scholar of disaster risk engineering and earthquake science.

UNC System President Peter Hans says Martin is the right leader to engineer the school's continuing rise. 

"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," Hans said. "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.”

At Friday's announcement ceremony on the A&T campus, Martin shared his own humble beginnings growing up on a family farm in a tiny, unincorporated South Carolina town, attending a segregated school. He reflected on his unlikely personal journey and the untapped human potential that he hopes to unleash in others as chancellor.

"Higher education serves as a platform for upward social mobility in peoples’ lives," Martin said. "And not just in society. Getting a degree in engineering for me allowed me to transform not only my life, but I was able to transform my entire family."

Martin replaces outgoing Chancellor, Winston-Salem native and A&T alumnus Harold Martin Sr. Under Martin’s 15-year tenure, the school saw continual growth in enrollment and endowment holdings. Entering Chancellor James Martin’s appointment will begin on August 15.