The University of North Carolina

General Administration

President Margaret M. Spellings — President of the University
Dr. Junius Gonzales — Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Mr. Kevin Howell — Senior Vice President for External Affairs
Mr. Andrew P. Kelly — Senior Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Mr. Jonathan Pruitt — Senior Vice President for Finance and Budget
Mr. Tom Shanahan — Senior Vice President Governance, Legal, and Risk and General Counsel
Vacant — Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Karrie Dixon — Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs
Mr. Dan Cohen-Vogel — Vice President for Data and Analytics
Ms. Kim van Noort — Vice President for Academic Programs, Faculty and Research
Vacant — Vice President for Digital Learning (Technology-Based Learning and Innovation)
Mr. Brian Sickora — Executive Director and General Manager, UNC-TV
Mrs. Kimrey Rhinehardt — Vice President Federal Affairs
Mr. Scott Daugherty — Interim Vice President for International, Community and Economic Engagement
Mr. Drew Moretz — Vice President for State Government Relations
Mr. Timothy Minor — Vice President for University Advancement
Vacant — Vice President for Business Affairs
Mr. Nathan Knuffman — Vice President for Financial Planning and Analysis
Mr. Matthew Brody — Vice President for Human Resources
Mr. Steven Hopper — Interim Vice President and CIO
Ms. Joanna Carey Cleveland — Vice President for Legal Affairs and Deputy General Counsel
Ms. Lynne Sanders — Vice President for Compliance and Audit
Mr. Brent Herron — Associate Vice President for Safety & Emergency Operations
Mr. Cameron Howell — Vice President for Strategic Initiatives
Mr. Shun Robertson — Assistant Vice President for Policy Development and Analysis
Ms. Meredith Didier — Chief of Staff
Ms. Andrea Poole — Senior Associate Vice President and Secretary of the University
Vacant — Vice President for Communications
Mr. Josh Ellis — Associate Vice President for Media Relations
Ms. Camille Barkley — Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications
Mr. Eric Johnson — Senior Writer and Policy Analyst

Board of Governors The University of North Carolina

W. Louis Bissette, Jr., Vice Chair
Joan Templeton Perry, Secretary

Class of 2019

Class of 2021

Emeritus Members

Hannah D. Gage

Ex-Officio Member

Tyler Hardin

History

In North Carolina, all the public educational institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees are part of the University of North Carolina. The University of North Carolina Wilmington is one of the 17 constituent institutions of the multi-campus state university. The University of North Carolina, chartered by the N.C. General Assembly in 1789, was the first public university in the United States to open its doors and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. The first class was admitted in Chapel Hill in 1795. For the next 136 years, the only campus of the University of North Carolina was at Chapel Hill.

In 1877 the N.C. General Assembly began sponsoring additional institutions of higher education, diverse in origin and purpose. Five were historically black institutions, and another was founded to educate American Indians. Several were created to prepare teachers for the public schools. Others had a technological emphasis. One is a training school for performing artists.

In 1931 the N.C. General Assembly redefined the University of North Carolina to include three state-supported institutions: the campus at Chapel Hill (now the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State University at Raleigh), and Woman’s College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). The new multi-campus university operated with one board of trustees and one president. By 1969 three additional campuses had joined the university through legislative action: the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

In 1971 the General Assembly passed legislation bringing into the University of North Carolina the state’s ten remaining public senior institutions, each of which had until then been legally separate: Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, the North Carolina School of the Arts, Pembroke State University, Western Carolina University, and Winston-Salem State University. This action created the current 16-campus university. In 1985 the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential high school for gifted students, was declared an affiliated school of the university; in July 2007 NCSSM by legislative action became a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina. In 1996 Pembroke State University was renamed the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and in 2008, the North Carolina School of the Arts was renamed the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, both through legislative action.

The UNC Board of Governors is the policy-making body legally charged with “the general determination, control, supervision, management, and governance of all affairs of the constituent institutions.” It elects the president, who administers the university. The 32 voting members of the Board of Governors are elected by the General Assembly for four-year terms. Former board chairmen and board members who are former governors of North Carolina may continue to serve for limited periods as non-voting members emeriti. The president of the UNC Association of Student Governments, or that student’s designee, is also a non-voting member.

Each of the 17 constituent institutions is headed by a chancellor, who is chosen by the Board of Governors on the president’s nomination and is responsible to the president. Each institution has a board of trustees, consisting of eight members elected by the Board of Governors, four appointed by the governor, and the president of the student body, who serves ex-officio. (The University of North Carolina School of the Arts has two additional ex-officio members and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Board of Trustees has 27 members.) Each board of trustees holds extensive powers over academic and other operations of its institution on delegation from the Board of Governors.