15-member panel named to conduct search for new chancellor

Phil Dixon, chair of the East Carolina University Board of Trustees, has named a 15-member committee to conduct a nationwide search for a new university chancellor.

Dixon will head the panel, which includes trustee, faculty and student members. Dr. Richard Eakin, chancellor at ECU since 1987, announced on April 27 that he will retire next year as the campus’s chief executive, effective with the arrival of his successor.

Members of the search committee, in addition to Dixon, are ECU trustees Charles Franklin, Willie Martin, H.E. “Gene” Rayfield Jr. and Betty Speir; Dr. Brenda Killingsworth, associate professor of decision sciences and chair of the faculty; Dr. Robert Morrison, professor of chemistry and vice chair of the faculty; Dr. Louise Toppin, associate professor of voice; and Dr. Julius Mallette, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and assistant dean of the Brody School of Medicine. Also, Willie Lee, chair of the ECU Staff Forum and director of University Printing and Graphics; Brenton Queen, president of the Student Government Association; Kelly King, chair of the ECU Board of Visitors and president of BB&T Corp.; Janice Faulkner, past chair of the Board of Visitors and commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles; Shelby Strother, president of the Alumni Association; and Diane Murphrey, president of the Pirate Club and vice president of finance for Copy Pro. Dean Phyllis Horns of the School of Nursing will serve as administrative secretary to the committee.

The committee held its first meeting on May 11. Molly Broad, the president of the University of North Carolina System, will address the committee on June 2. Dixon said a search firm will be hired to assist the committee. Once the search is completed, the Board of Trustees will forward the names of at least two finalists to President Broad for consideration. The new chancellor, upon nomination by the president, must be elected by the UNC Board of Governors, the policy-making body of the 16-campus University of North Carolina.