Belk Center Project to Profile ECC Leader

The Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research is profiling Edgecombe Community College President Dr. Greg McLeod as part of its Trailblazer Profiles project. Shown from left are Belk Center staff Dr. Audrey Jaeger, executive director; Daniel West, research associate; Erin O’Quinn, media and communications manager; and Dr. McLeod.

Dr. Greg McLeod, president of Edgecombe Community College, is among the North Carolina community college leaders who are the focus of a new project underway by the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at North Carolina State University.

Belk Center staff traveled to Tarboro recently to interview Dr. McLeod for the Trailblazer Profiles.

The Trailblazer Profiles are part of the Belk Center’s North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) History Project and will highlight and celebrate the work of Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous leaders in the NCCCS, focusing on current and former community college presidents and system leaders.

“We hope that through this project, we can re-center the conversations around who we recognize as important in the history of community college leadership in North Carolina and inspire support for diversifying the presidential leadership pipeline,” says Dr. Audrey Jaeger, executive director of the Belk Center.

Dr. McLeod took office as president of Edgecombe Community College in August 2018. He is the college’s first African American leader.

“I am honored to be included in this important project of the Belk Center,” Dr. McLeod says. “Leading a community college is deeply rewarding, and I have had the benefit of wonderful mentors and other leaders in education who paved the way. It is essential that our historically underserved populations in higher education have role models who look like them if we are to inspire and lift them up.”

The interview with Dr. McLeod was the Belk Center’s tenth interview for the project. Learn more about the Trailblazer Profiles.