Background

Served as vice president for instruction and student development/chief academic officer/accreditation SACSCOC liaison at Piedmont Community College since 2015. She previously served as provost and vice president for academic and student affairs/accreditation SACSCOC liaison at Bennett College in Greensboro (2012-2014), vice president for academic affairs/chief academic officer at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg (2009-2012), and vice president for academic affairs at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh (2000-2009).
Dr. Johnson earned both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in history and education from N.C. Central University. She earned her Ph.D. in U.S. Women’s and Peace History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The interview

Why did you want to apply to be president of HCC?

I wanted to apply for several reasons.
I think the first reason is because Halifax Community College is probably one of the community college system’s best kept secrets. I say that because of the 58 institutions it is one of the oldest and with that comes a very storied past.
In addition to that and in terms of my research, I also realized that unlike many of the colleges of its size several of its academic programs are accredited by a discipline specific accrediting agency. That in itself is a testament to the quality and kinds of programs that it offers to students.
I think the second reason is because this institution, like many, has had a number of challenges, but it has also been able to overcome those challenges. I think some institutions of similar size who are going through the same challenges could also learn a lot from how Halifax Community College has dealt with those issues.
A third reason for me, on a personal level, it is really a natural progression professionally. I’ve been a chief academic officer at several institutions, three four-year universities and now a community college.
I’ve been looking at several community colleges who are advertising for presidents and Halifax Community College is the one that appealed to me the most.
I think another reason is my passion for leadership. I’m not comfortable with just sitting around doing the same thing over and over again. I like challenges.
Following in the footsteps of President Griffin, this s a gentleman who over the last 10 years really made some major accomplishments. He’s built a great legacy, made a number of contributions and certainly I think I could build upon the legacy he has built, continue to make similar contributions as far as taking Halifax Community College to the next level.

What do you feel you can bring to the table for the college?

I think there’s several things I can bring to the table.
The first one, which I think is important, is a diversity of experience. I started out in education back in 1978.
Upon graduating from college my first position was that of an instructor at North Carolina Central University and over time continued to move up at North Carolina Central and have been in a number of other universities as an educator teaching, conducting the research.
Then eventually I was provided with an opportunity at one of the universities to move up into an administrative position, department chair. It was a position I initially didn’t want because I felt at that particular time I could not make a difference in the lives of students, not as well as I would have in the classroom, but nonetheless moved up as a chief academic officer or provost for academic affairs at three different universities prior to coming to the community college.
When I say diversity of experience, many of the challenges faced by the four-year institutions have many of the challenges faced by two-year institutions.
I’ve been in four-year institutions where they’ve had in some ways open admissions policies so they’ve had students coming in with different challenges. I think that experience from what I’ve been able to apply to the four-year level successfully, I’ve applied it where I am with some degree of success.
I think the second is my passion for leadership. I really believe I can make a difference. I believe that I’m not about showing up at work every day just to say I’m here, hello, how are you? But rather I’m there pulling my sleeves up, ready to go to work. I think that is a work ethic I can bring to Halifax Community College.
The third would be successes that I’ve had where I know they have challenges and that is increasing enrollment, increasing retention and graduation rates. I’ve had experience in those areas in turning that around in terms of improving those retention, graduation and enrollment rates. I believe I can apply that to HCC and achieve the same results.

What would you like to see done at the community college should you get the job?

I think if I were to become the next president of Halifax Community College, if I was so fortunate, I would like to, number one, begin working on increasing enrollment, improving retention, graduation rates.
When you look at the North Carolina community college performance measures, there are two areas where Halifax Community College seems to struggle. One is the university transfer rate. I found that in other institutions and the second is in developmental education.
I would like, with my team, to implement plans to improve in those two areas.
Also, increasing partnerships, especially across state lines. Halifax Community College is a border institution so is Piedmont Community College where I am currently. One of the things we’ve done that has been successful is that we’ve reached across the line to Danville Community College and Averett University. It has been quite beneficial for us working with them in a collaborative partnership.
I also notice Halifax Community College has an associate engineering degree and while it’s part of the comprehensive articulation agreement when you get into the career programs oftentimes you have to look at additional articulation agreements, so even looking at that degree, establishing agreements, specific to Halifax Community College with North Carolina State University and A&T State University that I think would also help in terms of increasing that university transfer rate.
I think we need to build diverse revenue streams so that you will have funding to invest in perhaps to offer those kinds of programs that will benefit students or ensure that students are successful.

Who influenced your decision to get into education?

There are two people.
Number one my father. My father and I were extremely close. My father, while he only graduated ninth grade, he had a strong interest in education and I think that is one of the reasons why we were so close. He was an avid reader so he would read about all kinds of things. He always had a book no matter where he was. As I became older we often discussed those works.
Very early on my parents always instilled in us the importance of education. Although they didn’t have a high school degree, they made it clear to us from day one we were going to graduate from high school. We didn’t have a choice.
The second person is my high school teacher, Saloma Mials. She was tough, most students didn’t want to take her class, but she was good. She was good in a sense that she could make those characters in that history book come alive in a class and I loved it. I would sit there and say, yes, I want to be a teacher, but I think I want to be a teacher just like her and that is one of the reasons I decided to major in history when I went to college.

Any favorite book you’ve read or any favorite person you’ve drawn inspiration from the most?

One book I think I’ve drawn inspiration from over the last few years from a personal perspective, in terms of inspiring me to strive, to move forward, is by Elisabeth Bumiller and it’s entitled Condoleezza Rice: An American Life. I was inspired by it, not because of any political ideological leanings, but rather because of her story growing up in Alabama. We are the same age and so we were growing up the same time in the South in rural communities with what I call a zeitgeist environment, different rules. I was just encouraged by the way in which she navigated that particular environment. She never gave up and she went on to get an education and really to become the nation’s first African-American female secretary of state. That’s an inspiring story.
Even when I thought about becoming a community college president I often think about her story and that gives me inspiration.
The second one from a professional perspective is a book by L. David Marquet called Turn the Ship Around: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders. I found that book to be very, very valuable because oftentimes people who are your reports, we have a tendency sometimes to forget sometimes that they have so much to offer and as a result oftentimes we don’t empower them to be leaders that they can be and that book talks a lot about how to do that, how to empower your followers so that they can become leaders. I’ve applied that technique in the positions I’ve been in with some success. I know deans love it because it gives them an opportunity to really and truly be leaders.

How will the possible change in the state governor’s race change education on the community college level?

When people are running for office they will say what they need to say oftentimes. Sometimes it’s rhetoric. I’ve had an opportunity to meet both Mr. Cooper as well as Governor McCrory. They were speaking directly to the community college presidents and both of them had a plan on how they would actually improve, hopefully improve the institutions or their platform or the changes they would hope to see.
I think time will tell. I think that if it is Attorney General Cooper I think there will be efforts made to certainly revisit things like funding for community colleges, looking at things like funding and other resources they may need.
The purse strings are controlled by the legislators and so while each man, whether it’s Governor McCrory or Attorney General Cooper, whether one or the other sits in that office, they’re going to have quite a bit of work to do with the legislators because at the end of the day I’ve seen the governors send forth a nice budget and in that budget a lot of the things the community colleges wanted are in that budget. But once it reaches the legislators, the budget committees there, that is where you begin to see some drastic decreases.
The second thing that will determine how well community colleges fair is whether or not they are regarded as a priority by those who are in governing positions. Over time, because of what they consider to be other responsibilities they have or other needs and other demands, funding for educational institutions has steadily declined, it’s no longer a priority, so we have to get back to that point a well.