6 The HBCU Advocate


Volume 1 Number 4


October 2017


Clarence D. Armbrister Named 14th President of Johnson C. Smith University


said Shirley J. Hughes, chair of the JCSU Board of Trustees


of the Presidential Search Committee.


Armbrister’s diverse career


provided the his competitive


“Mr . experience edge


in a nine-month search,” said Hughes. “We believe varied


background


in education, finance, government and law brings an


Charlotte, N.C. -- The Board


of Trustees of Johnson C. Smith University announced today the selection


of Clarence President-elect D. “Clay”


Armbrister, J.D., as the university’s 14th president, effective January 1, 2018.


currently serves as president of Girard College,


an independent disadvantaged


Armbrister college


preparatory five-day boarding school for academically capable students from economically


families


from the Philadelphia region. Armbrister succeeds Dr. Ronald


L. Carter, who steps down officially on December 31, 2017, after leading the successful transformation of Johnson C. Smith University for nine years. Carter announced his resignation in August 2016 and committed to remain as President, allowing the Board of Trustees time to conduct a thorough national search for the right leader to continue the forward trajectory of the institution that is celebrating its 150th year.


Armbrister has extensive


experience at all levels of education, including time in the School District of Philadelphia and senior administrative positions


at Temple University and


Johns Hopkins University. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Community College of Philadelphia. In addition to his background in education,


Armbrister has held


executive positions in law, government and finance.


Armbrister’s range of experience across several sectors helped him stand out among highly-qualified candidates,


increasingly


broad lens to the complex


exceptionally demands


of


the changing landscape in higher education today.”


Armbrister looks forward to bringing his experience to Charlotte and working with the board, faculty, staff, students and alumni of Johnson C. Smith University while collaborating with community leaders to continue propelling JCSU to the forefront as an innovative institution that provides higher education access to diverse students. As a first generation college graduate, he has a powerful personal perspective on the importance of education.


to have been selected as the 14th president


University, which throughout its


150-year history has improved the lives of its students and contributed to the growth of Charlotte,” Armbrister said. “I am especially


looking


forward to working with the Board, the faculty, staff and administration to position JCSU as one of the finest institutions of higher education in the country that meets not only the needs of its students, but those of the communities


it serves—locally,


regionally and globally. This will build upon the unparalleled success of Dr. Carter’s work to establish JCSU as a premier independent 21st century new urban university.”


for education


Armbrister’s leadership, passion and


dedication to


student development will be a great benefit to JCSU, said Bernard W. Smalley, vice chair of the Board of Directors of City Trusts and chair of


“I am honored and humbled of Johnson C. Smith


the Girard College Committee. “I have had the privilege – and it


and chair


is a genuine privilege – to work closely with Clay Armbrister over the last five years,” Smalley said. “He has worked tirelessly in leading the development of a new curriculum that is preparing our students to be even more successful in college and build lives as productive citizens. Through that work, it became clear


that Clay has a passion for


shaping young lives through the power of higher education, and JCSU offers a challenge that he just couldn’t pass up. I know this much: JCSU is getting a great leader who is dedicated to the cause of helping young people use higher education to build successful and productive lives.”


Prior to his leadership Girard College, of Armbrister served


as senior vice president and chief of staff at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He honed his experience in higher education during his five years at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he served as senior vice president being


promoted


for administration before to


executive vice


president and chief operating officer. During his tenure as executive vice


president and chief operating officer at Temple University, Armbrister was responsible for $400 million in capital projects on several campuses and the rapid conversion from a commuter to a residential campus. He also led Temple’s management, planning and coordination of student affairs, facilities management services, campus safety services, intercollegiate athletics, computer and information services,


affirmative education action,


enrollment management services, and management analysis.


Armbrister also has higher teaching


experience. He


served as an adjunct faculty member at Temple, developing and teaching a municipal finance curriculum in the Beasley School of Law.


In addition to his experience in


elementary and secondary education at Girard College, Armbrister served as managing director for the School District of Philadelphia (1996-1998), which at


largest school district in the United States


with students. Armbrister has been successful


that time was the fourth more


than 215,000 at the highest levels of municipal


government and has worked with some of the most well-known politicians in the recent history of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was city treasurer for the City of Philadelphia (1994-1996) during the tenure of former mayor Ed Rendell, who become governor of Pennsylvania. From 2008-2011, Armbrister served as chief of staff for former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter. His work in the finance sector includes being an investment banker at UBS PaineWebber, Inc., where he served as head of the Municipal Securities Group education practice, overseeing


nationwide efforts in


underwriting transactions for issuers in the K-12 public education market. Armbrister began his professional career


A native of Miami, Armbrister


received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He and his wife, Denise, who is senior vice president of Wells Fargo Corporation


and executive


director of the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation and the Wells Fargo Regional


Community Development


Corporation, currently reside in Philadelphia. They have five children, including a daughter who is a graduate of Spelman College and a son who is a senior at North Carolina Central University.


Armbrister and his wife will be


introduced to the JCSU community on Thursday, October 19, 2017.


Presidential


The Johnson C. Smith University Search Committee


included: Trustees Thomas Barnhardt, Steven Boyd ’79, Sheila R. Brown, D.D.S. ’77, Christy Bryant ’75, Kevin A. Henry, Shirley J. Hughes, Michael Jones, Monroe Miller and Tami B. Simmons as well as Helen Caldwell, Ph.D., chair of the Council of


Deans, and Phillip Otienoburu,


Ph.D., assistant professor of biology. William Farthing of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, served as counsel to the group. Issacson, Miller, an executive search firm, assisted in the national search.


practicing law and was a


partner in the public finance division of Saul, Ewing, Remick & Saul in Philadelphia.


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