Albertson named as new vice-president at WCC
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on August 17, 2005 1:46 PM
Dr. Kay Albertson is Wayne Community College's new vice president for academic affairs and student services.
She assumes the leadership of the student services area, which includes admissions and records, counseling, testing, financial aid, student activities and recruiting and cooperative education and job placement services. That responsibility is added to her current duties of supervising the curriculum instructional and support services, including all of the college's academic divisions, library, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base programs and the Academic Skills Center.
Dr. Albertson said the two areas, academic affairs and student services, have the same mission: to provide students with quality programs and services and to assist them in having a successful college experience so that they can enter the workforce prepared.
"It is an exciting and challenging time for the college and for me," she said. "Over the next few years, the college team will focus on meeting the needs of a growing and diverse student population."
She said she will work on closing "the achievement gap of our first generation college student of color and low income" and improving the success of students who have to take pre-curriculum or developmental courses to be prepared for college work.
Dr. Albertson has more than 20 years experience in the N.C. Community College System and has been employed with WCC since Aug. 2000, rising from division head to associate vice president for academic affairs to vice president of academic affairs in November 2003. She had previously worked as an instructor at the college in the early 1980s.
Dr. Albertson has also held positions at Lenoir Community College in Kinston, the University of Virginia and Old Dominion University.
At Wayne Community College, Dr. Albertson has been instrumental in the development and operation of the new childcare center and introduction of new programs in emergency preparedness technology, surgical technology, operations management and teaching associate.
She has served in leadership positions for a variety of organizations ranging from the N.C. Association of Community College Instructional Administrators to the United Way of Wayne County.
She was selected as one of the first five fellows in the W. Dallas Herring Leadership Development Institute to train future community college presidents In 2003.
She is a graduate of Longwood College in Virginia and holds a master's and a doctorate degree in early childhood education from the University of Virginia.
She is married to W. Woodrow "Woody" Albertson, a clinical psychologist. Her son, Clayton, and his wife, Jacqueline, live in New York, N.Y.