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Political Advisor Hired To Lead NC Community College System

Peter Hans, the newly elected president of the N.C. Community College System, delivers remarks while North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, from left, House Speaker Tim Moore and Gov. Roy Cooper listen during a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, May 1, 2018.
Gerry Broome
/
AP
Peter Hans, the newly elected president of the N.C. Community College System, delivers remarks while North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, from left, House Speaker Tim Moore and Gov. Roy Cooper listen during a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, May 1, 2018.
Peter Hans, the newly elected president of the N.C. Community College System, delivers remarks while North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, from left, House Speaker Tim Moore and Gov. Roy Cooper listen during a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, May 1, 2018.
Gerry Broome
Peter Hans, the newly elected president of the N.C. Community College System, delivers remarks while North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, from left, House Speaker Tim Moore and Gov. Roy Cooper listen during a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, May 1, 2018.

A Raleigh-based government relations expert has been chosen to lead North Carolina’s community college system. The last president resigned after a little more than a year on the job.Peter Hans was elected Tuesday by the state community college board, a board on which he served a six-year term starting in 1997.

Hans has been an advisor to three United States senators, including Republican Richard Burr. More recently, he chaired the UNC system's Board of Governors. Since 2016, he has served as a consultant to UNC System President Margaret Spellings.

Hans’s predecessor, James Williamson, was hired away from South Carolina's technical college system. He resigned as president of the state’s community college system abruptly last summer, and later claimed he was forced out. Jennifer Haygood, who previously served as chief of staff for the system, acted as interim president following his departure.

The North Carolina Community College system serves nearly 700,000 students at 58 different campuses.

 

Copyright 2018 North Carolina Public Radio

Before joining WUNC in October as the station's new education reporter, Lisa Philip covered schools in Howard County, Maryland for the Baltimore Sun newspapers. She traveled from school playgrounds to the state legislature, writing about everything from a Girl Scout friendship bench project to a state investigation into local school officials' alleged hiding of public records.