UNC System announces search committee for new chancellor at NC State

UNC System president Peter Hans did not waste any time in appointing the committee that will recommend a replacement for NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson.

Woodson, the longest serving chancellor in the University of North Carolina System, announced on Thursday that he will retire at the end of June of 2025 after 15 years leading the system’s largest university. Today, system president Peter Hans appointed a 13-member search advisory committee that will lead the effort to identify a new leader for the Raleigh-based institution.

As an announcement posted to the NC State website explains, the membership of the committee will, pursuant to system policy, be comprised of “13 voting members, including representatives of the trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni.”

The announcement notes further that “The policy also calls for a current or former chancellor of a UNC System institution to serve, as well as members of the UNC Board of Governors and the president or his designee.”

While the committee will be chaired by NC State Board of Trustees vice chair Ed Stack, it is Hans who will ultimately play the leading role in the replacement process. As NC Newsline reported in March with respect to the search for a permanent chancellor at UNC Chapel Hill and in January with respect to a search at NC Central, not only will Hans serve as a member of the search committee, but system policy affords him the power to play the central role in the selection of final candidates, and ultimately, the final decision.

The members of the search committee are:

• Edwin J. “Ed” Stack III (’92), NC State Board of Trustees vice chair, chair of the search advisory committee
• Charles Hall, NC State Staff Senate chair, communications manager for electrical and computer engineering
• Peter Hans, UNC System president
• Timothy L. Humphrey (’96), NC State Board of Trustees secretary
• Ghazale Johnston (’96), NC State Board of Trustees member
• Allison Markert, NC State student body president, senior majoring in natural resources with a concentration in policy and administration from Charlotte
• Dr. Harold Martin, chancellor emeritus, North Carolina A&T State University
• Dr. Herle McGowan, NC State Faculty Senate chair, Department of Statistics
• J. Alex Mitchell (’95), UNC Board of Governors campus liaison
• Wendy Floyd Murphy, UNC Board of Governors chair
• David M. Powers (’83), NC State Board of Trustees member
• Dewayne Washington (’01), Partner at NSV Development
• Edward I. “Ed” Weisiger Jr. (’82), NC State Board of Trustees chair

Woodson’s tenure in Raleigh has been unusually peaceful and trouble-free during an era in which politics and micromanagement by the state legislature’s Republican majority have roiled many campuses. This past year, however, has been marred by controversy surrounding Poe Hall — a building on campus in which a suspected cancer cluster related to PCB contamination — and what some have argued was the university’s inadequate response to protect staff and students.