Alamance Community College’s trustees unanimously elected a new chairman and vice chairman to guide the board through the 2022-23 fiscal year.
ACC’s trustees voted unanimously to elect Blake Williams, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, as their new chairman and Julie Scott Emmons as their vice chairman during their regular monthly meeting Monday night.
[Story continues below photos.]
Williams, who lives in Mebane, was initially appointed to the trustee board by Alamance County’s commissioners in 2015 and reappointed to a second four-year term in 2019. He previously served two years as the board’s vice chairman. His current term on ACC’s board expires June 30, 2023.
Emmons, who also lives in Mebane, was originally appointed to ACC’s board of trustees in 2015 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory; both are Republicans. She was not reappointed when her term expired in June 2019.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat subsequently appointed Pete Glidewell, III, a realtor who lives in Elon, to replace Emmons on ACC’s board in 2019; his term runs through June 30, 2023.
Alamance-Burlington school board members later appointed Emmons in 2020 to a four-year term on ACC’s board that runs through June 30, 2024.
She previously worked as the district director for former Congressman Mark Walker, a Republican whose district included Alamance County and several other Piedmont-Triad counties. Emmons currently serves as the director of Human Partnerships for Human Coalition, a nonprofit that provides women facing unexpected pregnancies with counseling and resources, she explained this week in a subsequent interview with The Alamance News.
Williams replaces ACC trustee Dr. Roslyn Crisp, a pediatric dentist and Burlington resident, as the trustees’ chairman.
Crisp was recognized by her fellow trustees this week for her two years as chairman. The school board initially appointed Crisp to ACC’s board in 2013 and reappointed her in 2017 and 2021; her current term expires June 30, 2025. (ACC trustee Bill Gomory, a retired banker who also lives in Burlington, was also recognized – belatedly, by virtue of the Covid-19 pandemic that prompted the trustees to hold many of their meetings via the Zoom online meeting platform for the past 2½ years – this week for his service as chairman from 2017 until 2020.)
During their meeting this week, ACC’s trustees also reelected ACC president Dr. Algie Gatewood as their secretary, in keeping with their practice of having the college’s president fill that role.
The trustees voted 10-0 to elect their slate of officers, including: Williams as chairman; Emmons as vice chairman; and Gatewood as secretary. Trustee Carl Steinbicker participated in the meeting by phone; trustee Steve Carter, who also serves as the vice chairman for Alamance County’s commissioners, was absent, as was trustee and Burlington mayor Jim Butler.
All officers’ terms are scheduled to run through June 30, 2023.
A change in state law that took effect in 2018 requires each community college’s board of trustees to elect a chairman and vice chairman at their first meeting held on or after July 1, coinciding with the start of the fiscal year. ACC’s trustees don’t customarily meet in July.
Meanwhile, ACC’s trustees this week welcomed their newest member, Sylvia Muñoz, this week, who has been appointed by Cooper’s Office of Boards and Commission to replace former trustee Cynthia Winters, a financial advisor in Burlington, on ACC’s board.
Alamance County senior chief district court judge Brad Allen, Sr. delivered the oath of office to Muñoz and three other trustees at the outset of their meeting Monday night.
Muñoz is employed as the assistant dean and director of the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Education (CREDE) at Elon University. She lives in Elon with her 17-year-old daughter, who is a rising senior at Williams High School, Muñoz told The Alamance News Monday night. Her term on ACC’s board runs through June 30, 2026.
Also sworn into office Monday night was ACC trustee Mark Gordon, who is president of Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington. Alamance County’s commissioners appointed Gordon earlier this year to serve the remainder of former trustee Craig Thompson’s term and subsequently appointed Gordon to a full, four-year term on ACC’s board.
Allen also delivered the oath of office to ACC trustee Dr. Charles K. Scott, who was reappointed by the school board on June 14 of this year, and to student trustee Alexandra Versace, who will serve as a non-voting board member in her capacity as the Student Government Association president for the 2022-23 academic year.
The governor, county commissioners, and school board members are each responsible for appointing four trustees. Terms are four years, though the term for the student trustee coincides with ACC’s academic calendar.
