Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
Salisbury, North Carolina
Vita Highlights - College and Community
In 2008, Dr. Carol S. Spalding was selected as the third President of North Carolina’s eighth largest community college, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, after a significant leadership career at Florida State College at Jacksonville where she served as interim president in 1998. She was the founding president of the Open Campus, leveraging continuing and corporate education to provide non-traditional credit delivery focused on military populations and online degree attainment. Under her leadership at Rowan-Cabarrus, the College has passed four bond referendums, doubled its online Virtual College enrollment, has expanded from two campuses to four, and has become the community colleges’ flagship at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) home to the Dr. Carol S. Spalding Advanced Technology Center.
Rowan-Cabarrus enrolls over 20,000 students annually in 57 curriculum programs and growing continuing education enterprise focusing on the essential public service workforce. An advocate for student success and the community college’s vital role in workforce and economic development, she served on the RowanWorks Economic Development Commission, Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce and the regional Centralina Workforce Development Board, earning the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Mark F. Whitley Chairman’s Award for Outstanding Service in 2023.
Completing two terms on the American Association of Community College’s board of directors, she continues her national service as Treasurer of the AACC affiliated Instructional Technology Council and in a select group of presidents called “Advocates in Action” who work with the AACC’s legislative staff to influence federal legislators concerning laws pertaining to community colleges. She serves on the North Carolina Community College Presidents’ Association professional development committee and is its liaison to the state’s community college foundation.
She has been recognized by two statewide community college systems for both leadership and partnerships: The Florida Association of Community Colleges Administrator of the Year Award in 1995 and the Wells Fargo President of the Year Award by the North Carolina Community College System in 2019. She has been acknowledged along with her teams for creating effective partnerships throughout her career, most recently in 2019, earning the Distinguished Partners in Excellence Award from the North Carolina Community College System for the joint efforts in building workforce development facilities and programs in Kannapolis, NC. She led the Jacksonville city/county wide visioning project which won the Florida Department of Education “Florida Best” Award for Outstanding Business and Education Partnership in 2003 and 2004.
Dr. Spalding is a student of servant leadership well-grounded in her experience from her four-decade commitment to community leadership at the local, state, and national level. She served on the board of the National Association for Community Leadership, serving as chair in 2000. In her doctorate dissertation, she addressed the theory and practice of servant leadership.
Dr. Spalding earned her doctorate in Education from Columbia University, a master’s in Human Resource Development from Pepperdine University and a bachelor's in International Studies from the University of Louisville.
In addition to focusing on degree attainment, workforce and leadership, Dr. Spalding experienced extensive professional development and has been active on many boards. She is a Senior Fellow at The American Leadership Forum, a scholarship recipient to The Aspen Institute Executive Seminar, the Art and Practice of Leadership Development program at the Kennedy School of Government and the Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education at the School of Education, both at Harvard University. She was selected for the first cohort of ELEVATENC:Higher Education developed by the Hunt Institute. She was a governor’s appointment and chaired the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum Carolina and listed in Who’s Who in America 2022.
The founder of the North Carolina Research Campus David Murdock appointed Dr. Spalding, now chair, to his seat on the board of the David H. Murdock Research Institute. The research organization was designed to provide “groundbreaking research and development solutions at the intersection of human health, agriculture and nutrition” on the North Carolina Research Campus.
During her tenure as president, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College has become a catalyst for change in the region, partnering with county and economic development commissions, city governments and business and industry sectors to provide relevant workforce development to create better jobs for better lives.