HAMLET — Richmond Community College has been selected to host the installment of the new president of the NC Community College System.
James C. “Jimmie” Williamson will be installed on April 10 at 10 a.m. in the Cole Auditorium on the campus of Richmond Community College.
School officials said they were “thrilled” with the honor of hosting the ceremony.
“It is a special honor for Richmond Community College to be hosting the installment of Dr. Jimmie Williamson as president of the N.C. Community College System,” said Dale McInnis, president of RichmondCC. “This is a great opportunity to show off our college and our community to the many people from both North and South Carolina who will be attending this commemorative event.”
The event is free and open to the public.
“We expect a pretty large crowd to attend, drawing folks from across the state and from all the community colleges,” Wylie Bell, director of marketing and communications at Richmond Community College.
Williamson 57, becomes the eighth president of the system, succeeding Scott Ralls, who left North Carolina last year to become president of Northern Virginia Community College.
“What a great legacy you have in North Carolina,” Williamson said after the State Board of Community Colleges voted unanimously to hire him following a nearly yearlong search. “You have a great infrastructure in place. For over 50 years, you’ve been dedicated to affordability and accessibility and providing opportunities for people in North Carolina to make it to the next level.”
The Cheraw, S.C. native will start the job July 1 at an annual salary of $285,000. Interim System President George Fouts will continue to lead the system until then.
Williamson has spent most of his career in higher education in South Carolina, including two decades with the technical college system, including president at two community colleges – Northeastern Technical College in Cheraw and Williamsburg Technical College in Kingstree.
In 2008, he left higher education for the private sector, spending six years at Agape Senior, a 2,400-employee health care company that runs assisted living and hospice facilities in South Carolina. There he led human resources and employee training.
Most recently, he served two years as president and CEO of the SC Technical College system. Additionally, he has been at the helm of South Carolina’s nationally recognized apprenticeship program and was named State Employee of The Year by the South Carolina Association of Regional Councils in 2015.
He has an undergraduate degree in visual art and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling, both from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. He received his doctorate in higher education from the University of South Carolina, where he also focused on gerontology and social work. His dissertation examined the learning styles of older people.
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