Albertson announces retirement
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on November 25, 2015 1:46 PM
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Dr. Kay Albertson
Wayne Community College President Dr. Kay Albertson will retire Aug. 1, 2016, she told the board of trustees Tuesday night.
Mrs. Albertson became the fifth president of the college, and its first female administrator, in July 2007, succeeding retiring Dr. Ed Wilson.
She has amassed more than 30 years' experience in the N.C. Community College system, having begun her career as an instructor when first hired at the college in 1980. She returned in August 2000 as a division head and was later named vice president for academic affairs.
She had also held positions at Lenoir Community College, the University of Virginia and Old Dominion University.
To begin and end her career at the local institution is symbolic, and she said she has been very proud of the college's "history of excellence."
"My community college experience feels complete and it is now time to engage in other pursuits, especially those involving family," she said.
Mrs. Albertson told the board she will issue a formal letter to them later this week, with a similar announcement made to WCC staff.
"Tonight after we leave each other I am going to go to my office and push a button," she said. "I have written a letter to the employees. I don't want them to hear it in the press first.
"I want them to get the message from me."
Mrs. Albertson reflected on the unexpected road that led to that moment.
"I began my career at Wayne Community College in 1980. I was a young Air Force wife with a little itty bitty boy and Woody (Albertson) was stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base," she said. "I didn't know a doggone thing about community colleges because I was very smug and had been at universities. But I fell in love with it.
"Ed Wilson, I always tease and say he had the wisdom to hire me twice. He hired me in 1980 and hired me back in 2000."
She has maintained her passion for the community college system as a whole, WCC specifically.
"I would not be leaving if I did not think we were in the very best place we could possibly be to assume new leadership," she said, referencing the recent successful visit from officials during the reaffirmation process by SACS, or Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
She said the fact that there were no glaring issues was not entirely due to her.
"That was a team of people that are sitting in this room who stood shoulder to shoulder with me every day and then shoulder to shoulder with the people that they supervise every day," she said. "They helped this institution to understand why we do what we do."
She reminded the board that 45 percent of the college's employees have been there less than five years, in stark contrast to the 30-plus years she has experienced in the field.
One reason for the nine-month notice is in line with the community college system and to ensure that all the state requirements are accomplished in securing a replacement.
The first step will be a special called meeting of the board next week, she said, with George Fouts, interim president of the N.C. Community College System, discussing the presidential search process.
"He will have good sage advice for you," she said. "We will move this college forward."
She promised to continue working tirelessly in the months leading up to her departure, with one particular goal still on her checklist.
"I am going to get that advanced manufacturing center up and running before I walk out the door," she said.
She thanked the board for its devotion and support, to both the institution and her as its leader.
"I'm excited, I have to tell you," she said. "I will have tears. I don't have tears now because I have a family that's rooting and saying, 'Ya know, she's an old girl.' And as I said to the senior staff this morning, 'I'm not as good as I used to be.' What's the response? 'But she's as good as she always was.' That's a Toby Keith song."
Board Chairman Chris Martin said she had mixed feelings about the announcement.
"When Kay told me she was going to retire, I told her, from a trustee basis, I was going, 'Oh, no!'" she said. "But from a personal basis, since I'm retired, I'm going, 'Oh, girl, you're going to love it !'"
She said the trustees owe the president a big debt of gratitude and a big round of applause.
"One of our biggest jobs as trustees is to hire and supervise the president," she said. "From now until Aug. 1 sounds like a long time but it isn't. We've got a search to do.
"Because of the way the government is set up in North Carolina, we have to meet certain deadlines. We have to notify the community college system of our top three people and then choose somebody."