Dr. Randy Woodson became North Carolina State University’s 14th chancellor in April 2010. Woodson leads the largest university in North Carolina, with more than 34,000 students and a $1.5 billion budget. Under his leadership, the university created and implemented The Pathway to the Future strategic plan and advanced each of its strategic goals.
NC State has become a lead university for two NSF Engineering Research Centers, one Manufacturing USA institute and partner on six others, and expanded to more than 70 industry and government partnerships on its nationally recognized Centennial Campus. NC State has also garnered national and international recognition for its faculty and student scholarship.
NC State launched the Think and Do the Extraordinary Campaign to raise $1.6 billion for scholarships, research, programs and facilities, propelling the university to even greater heights.
Leading by example to tackle the world’s grand challenges, Woodson also chairs the APLU Commission of Global Food Security and serves on the US Council of Competitiveness Executive Committee.
Full BiographyHonoring former Chancellor Marye Anne Fox
Dear NC State community,
I write today with the sad news that former NC State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox passed away Sunday night at her home in Austin, Texas, after a long illness.
Marye Anne Fox was appointed NC State’s 12th chancellor on Aug. 1, 1998. As well as being NC State’s first female executive leader, she also provided tremendous guidance and vision as our land-grant university charged into the 21st century, propelled by her commitment to raising NC State’s stature in teaching, scholarship, research and extension. She played a prominent role in lobbying the North Carolina legislature for the historic $3.1 billion University and Community College Bond Referendum and in the decision to expand the Atlantic Coast Conference, of which NC State is a charter member.
During her tenure, the number of endowed chairs and professorships and endowed and designated merit scholarships increased substantially. The number of buildings on Centennial Campus doubled, as did the expansion of fundraising, the development of new multidisciplinary programs and the number of patents held by the university. The university also emerged as a national pacesetter in a number of science and technology programs.
When Marye Anne left in April 2004 to become the chancellor of the University of California San Diego, NC State had laid the groundwork to expand its outreach within North Carolina, while also gaining national and global prominence. NC State’s first building constructed with funding from the state bond approved in November 2000 was a science research center that included industrial laboratories, classrooms and greenhouses for horticultural science. The research center opened in 2004 and was named the Marye Anne Fox Science Teaching Laboratory in honor of her service to the university.
Throughout her career in leadership, Marye Anne remained an active and prominent scientist and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2010.
Even with all of her many accomplishments, what stands out to me is that Marye Anne perpetuated the notion that NC State needed to raise its expectations as a premier academic institution. Her leadership changed how we think of ourselves as a university and elevated NC State’s stature as a world-class academic institution.
NC State owes a great deal of gratitude and respect to Marye Anne Fox.
Randy Woodson
Chancellor