Maria Pharr, a former Pitt Community College assistant vice president, has been selected as its new president, becoming the first woman to lead the college.
Pharr, who has served as president of South Piedmont Community College since 2017, will become the sixth president in PCC’s 63-year history, effective Aug. 13. She follows President Lawrence Rouse, who retired at the end of June.
“It’s an amazing opportunity and one for which I am truly grateful,” Pharr said in a statement. “After growing up in Havelock, it’s a dream come true for me to come back home to eastern North Carolina and utilize my education and professional skills to lead the state’s eighth-largest community college.”
PCC’s Board of Trustees made the announcement Friday following a vote by the state Board of Community Colleges. PCC Vice President of Finance/Chief Financial Officer Ricky Brown will serve as the school’s interim president until Pharr begins her tenure.
“A lot of folks were very well qualified, but we felt like that she stood out among the finest,” PCC Board of Trustees Chairman Charles Ellis said in an interview in which he described Pharr as innovative and creative. “Everywhere she’s gone she just set an excellent standard.”
Ellis, who was on the board when Rouse became the first African-American to lead PCC, said he was equally glad to be part of hiring the college’s first female president.
The announcement came about a month after Pharr and two other finalists visited PCC’s campus to meet faculty, staff, students and community members and to answer questions about their qualifications.
Pharr, who began her community college career two decades ago as an instructor at Craven Community College, was PCC’s assistant vice president for academic affairs from 2011 to 2014. During that time, she is credited with helping to increase student enrollment, improve distance learning programming and strengthen collaboration with Pitt County Schools to expand Career and College Promise offerings. She also was involved in developing a partnership with N.C. Wesleyan University that gave PCC students a chance to earn associate and bachelor’s degrees on the Pitt campus within three years.
Brown, who worked with Pharr during her earlier tenure at PCC, described her as a dedicated and thoughtful leader.
“The college will be in excellent hands with Dr. Pharr leading the way,” he said in a statement, “and I look forward to welcoming her back to Winterville.”
Pharr left PCC to serve as executive director of BioNetwork and Life Science Initiatives for the N.C. Community College System before becoming president of South Piedmont Community College. Her son attended PCC and played baseball there.
“I truly believe that everything in my life has led me to right now,” Pharr said at a public forum June 20 at PCC’s Goess Student Center. “We love it here. Pitt Community College has been a part of my life.”
Pharr received her master’s degree and also her doctorate in higher education administration from East Carolina University. In 2019, she was among 11 university alumnae honored as Incredible ECU Women.
“When I moved to the system office, I never left Greenville because it meant something to me,” she said last month. “I traveled 87 miles one way on that commute. But I love it here, love it so much that my husband and I purchased land here because I knew I was coming back. I would either come back when I retired or when an opportunity presented itself.”
During her tenure at South Piedmont, the college grew from 31st to 18th of the state’s community colleges in terms of enrollment. She received national recognition for using HyFlex teaching, an approach that offers in-person and online synchronous and asynchronous instructional options, to improve course completion rates.
Pharr said her years of leading South Piedmont helped prepare her for the new position. But she said she does not intend to model PCC after her former school.
“Just because we did it at South Piedmont does not mean that we pick it up and drop it in Pitt and do it just like we did it at South Piedmont because every college is unique,” she said in June. “It is about understanding the culture … and saying, ‘Where do we want to go?’”
Pharr’s arrival at PCC is timed to coincide with the beginning of fall semester. Ellis said she is scheduled to speak at the college’s convocation on her first day on the job.
In her statement on July 19, Pharr mentioned PCC’s role in regional workforce development. She made reference to recent announcements that Nipro Medical Corp. and Boviet Solar plan to bring jobs to the region and said PCC is positioned to partner with current and new industries.
Kennon Briggs, a consultant with the Association of Community College Trustees, a nonprofit that assisted the college with the search, said there was no shortage of candidates interested in becoming the president. Some 90 applicants from 30 states and four countries sought the position. Other finalists Nicole Reaves, executive vice president and chief programs officer of Wake Tech in Raleigh and Roger W. Davis, president of the Community College of Beaver County in Pennsylvania.
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