Granville native named chancellor at Elizabeth City State University

University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans has appointed longtime educator and Granville County native Dr. Catherine Edmonds as interim chancellor at Elizabeth City State University.

She will succeed Chancellor Karrie Dixon, who has led ECSU since 2018 and was elected this week the next chancellor of North Carolina Central University, according to a press release.

Edmonds began her career with Granville County Schools as a high school Math teacher and school principal.

Edmonds, who has served as chief of staff at NCCU since 2022, will become interim chancellor on July 1. She will join a talented leadership team at ECSU, including Provost Farah Ward and Chief of Staff Alyn Goodson.

Edmonds is a career educator with deep roots in northeastern North Carolina, having served as superintendent of Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools from 2019 to 2021, and superintendent of the Bertie County Schools from 2018 to 2019.

She has worked at the state level to improve public schools and student success across North Carolina.

She was deputy state superintendent in the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in 2021-22, and previously served the department for seven years as a district transformation coach and district portfolio manager. She was state director of the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program and director of educational leadership and development in the UNC System from 2016 to 2018. She began her career as a high school teacher and later as a principal in the Granville County Schools.

“Dr. Edmonds has spent her entire career building better schools for students, and she is very well suited to step into the role of interim chancellor at Elizabeth City State,” Hans said. “She has strong ties in northeastern North Carolina communities, where she has been deeply involved in the public schools. She has the talent and skill to continue ECSU’s strong momentum.”

Edmonds, a first-generation college graduate, is a proud product of HBCUs in the UNC System. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She began her graduate work at North Carolina Central University and earned a master’s degree in educational leadership and a Doctor of Education degree in educational administration, both at NC State University.

Her son, a Coast Guard veteran, is a student at Elizabeth City State, majoring in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on emergency management.

A search for the next chancellor of Elizabeth City State University will begin later this year.

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