New president named for Wake Tech — and he’s a familiar face for NC
Scott Ralls, the former president of the state’s community college system, was named the next president of Wake Tech on Tuesday.
Ralls, currently the president of Northern Virginia Community College, will assume the job May 1 at an annual salary of $345,000. He succeeds Stephen Scott, who retired after 15 years leading Wake Tech.
The appointment was approved by the Wake Tech Board of Trustees on Tuesday, and the N.C. State Board of Community Colleges acted to approve the choice later in the day.
“I’m really excited,” Ralls said in a phone interview. “It’s a homecoming for me.”
Ralls was president of North Carolina’s 58-college community college system from 2008 to 2015. He previously served as president of Craven Community College in New Bern. He has 20 years of experience in community colleges.
At Northern Virginia, known as NOVA, Ralls led the nation’s second largest community college. Wake Tech is North Carolina’s largest, serving 74,000 students and having grown by 50 percent during the past decade. In August, Wake Tech opened its sixth campus at Research Triangle Park in what is envisioned as a site for high-tech programs and customized training for area companies.
Ralls’ tenure at NOVA included the building of three facilities for advanced training and the establishment of new programs such as a cloud computing degree in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, according to Tuesday’s announcement. Last month, Amazon announced that its new headquarters would be in Northern Virginia and New York City; Raleigh had been on a list of contenders for the Amazon expansion.
Wake Tech Board Chair Tom Looney said Ralls was the right person at the right time for the college.
“With his extensive record of achievement and leadership at one of the nation’s largest community colleges, he will be able to build on Wake Tech’s solid foundation and continue its tradition of excellence,” Looney said in a news release. “Throughout the selection process, Scott Ralls stood apart. He knows our region’s economic landscape, understands our workforce training needs and works effectively with elected leaders on both sides of the aisle.”
Ralls said Wake Tech has had a strong foundation of leadership. “It’s such an innovative community college, and I’ve always just admired Wake Tech and its ability to always be moving forward,” he said.
He added that he hopes to “continue the dynamism” that has been a key ingredient to Wake Tech’s trajectory as it served the population and economic changes in a booming Wake County.
Ralls said he appreciated his time as head of North Carolina’s community college system, but “being a local community college president, to me, is the best it gets.”
He was chosen from a pool of 60 candidates. Last month, Wake Tech announced finalists for the position, including Ralls and two others — Andrew Bowne, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis, and Natalie Harder, chancellor of South Louisiana Community College.
Ralls earned his undergraduate degree at UNC-Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Maryland.
This story was originally published December 18, 2018 at 11:33 AM.
