N.C. A&T Installs Chancellor James R. Martin II on 135th Founders Day

Click here to watch a complete recording of Installation and Founders Day Convocation.

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 9, 2026) – As North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University reflected upon its illustrious history while celebrating  the 135^th anniversary of its founding, the focus was on its future with the formal installation of 13^th chancellor, James R. Martin II, Ph.D., M. ASCE.

“Now, Next & Beyond: Driving Exponential Innovation & Global Impact” was the theme of the two-hour event at Ellis F. Corbett Sports Center. N.C. A&T Board of Trustees Chair Gina Loften ’90 presided over the ceremony, which drew hundreds of A&T administrators, faculty, staff and students, along with dignitaries representing the University of North Carolina System, city of Greensboro, Guilford County, state General Assembly, other colleges, universities and educational institutions across the state and nation.

The UNC Board of Governors selected Martin to lead A&T, the nation’s largest historically Black college or university (HBCU), on June 21, 2024. Since taking office Aug. 15 that year, Martin led an aggressive agenda of building external partnerships with agencies and corporations, enhancement of university operations, hiring a long list of vice chancellors and deans and accelerating the university’s path toward attaining the nation’s top designation for high-activity doctoral research universities: Research 1 in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Wallace Means ‘86, who earned his undergraduate degree from what is now the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics, grew up with Martin in Union County, South Carolina, and offered remarks during the ceremony.

“Now, as Aggies, we are fiercely protective of our legacy. We love this university deeply. We are the largest and the best HBCU in the world, “ said Means. “We are the essence of Aggie Pride. And because of that, Chancellor Martin, we are extremely protective of who we entrust with its future.

“Today, my brother, we affirm that we trust you with the future of this grand institution.”

Martin said his parents, James and Dora, who together spent 75 years in public service in elected and appointed roles, taught him three important leadership lessons, all rooted in faith.

“If you’re really going to do things that matter in life, you’d better be ready to work hard,” he said. “When you’re doing great things, it’s going to be uphill, especially when we’re serving others.”

Secondly, Martin said, they taught him the difference between strength and power.

“It takes strength to get through life, to carry loads,” he said. “But if you’re going to be a leader and lead people, you have to be powerful because you carry your load and the loads of others.”

Finally, Martin said, “Learn to measure distance traveled. And the further we travel, the more we become.”

“To every student in this room, I want you to hear me clearly: Where you start … it’s not your ceiling, it’s your foundation,” he said. “The distance behind you is proof of the great distance ahead.”

Martin earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at The Citadel and a master’s and doctorate in civil engineering from Virginia Tech. A scholar in disaster risk engineering and earthquake science, he has conducted research around the world in earthquake zones, leading to stronger building codes in the United States. He has provided international engineering consulting for nearly 100 firms and government agencies.

With decades of academic leadership experience at major public universities, including Virginia Tech and Clemson University, where he was the founding executive director of its groundbreaking Risk Engineering and Systems Analytics Institute, Martin came to A&T after serving as the U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering in Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering and as vice chancellor for STEM Innovation and Research over a six-year span.

“My mother’s grandmother – Granny, to me and my cousins – was born enslaved. She could not have imagined her great grandson standing on this podium today,” Martin said after taking his oath of office. “The distance between her life and this moment is not just the distance this university represents. It’s the distance that made this university necessary.”

A&T’s long-venerated Founders Day marks the date in 1891 when the university was established by the N.C. General Assembly as the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race. The university’s establishment and ongoing success are celebrated each year at Founders Day Convocation.

A&T was the first public institution of higher learning f

or African Americans in North Carolina as well as the second campus created nationally under the Morrill Act of 1890, which provided for land-grant institutions for Black students in states that would not admit those students to its other public colleges.

A group of Greensboro leaders offered $11,000 and 14 acres to relocate the institution from its original site as a Shaw University annex, and the college’s Board of Trustees accepted the offer in 1982. John Oliver Crosby, who had been born into slavery, was elected the college’s first president May 25, 1892, and the new Greensboro campus was established the following year.

“We stand on legacy and now we are leading,” said Donna Ford ‘86, SodexoMagic vice president and Ladies of A&T founder and CEO, who spoke about some of the university’s most prominent educators and alumni who established a bedrock of excellence. “Aggies are never satisfied with standing still. We’re always doing and never done. And because of that, the best is yet to come.”

“After more than 135 years of determination and distance travel, we’re not just a university with a proud history. We’ve got extraordinary momentum,” said Martin. “None of this progress belongs to any one leader or any one moment. It belongs to this remarkable community.

“As Aggies, we understand something about distance. We know that distance traveled is never the end of the journey. It’s simply a place where we pause and look ahead.”

Martin said that in the next 10 years, not only will A&T be the nation’s first R1 public HBCU, but also among the top 50 public research universities in the nation – not just among HBCUs. The university will double its research enterprise, as well as the size of the Graduate College, through high-impact research and strategic partnerships with industry, government and peer institutions. It also will grow and achieve higher graduation rates, above 80 percent, and will expand its endowment to more than $1 billion.

“We will prove for the world that access and excellence are not opposing forces,” he said. “While some elite universities are defined by who they exclude, North Carolina A&T is and always will be defined by the people we include. And we’ll continue to celebrate that.”