After a nationwide search, St. Augustine’s finds its new president here in Raleigh
St. Augustine’s University has appointed Dr. Christine Johnson McPhail as the 13th president of the school in east Raleigh.
McPhail is the widow of Dr. Irving Pressley McPhail, who had served just three months as president of the historically Black university when he fell ill with COVID-19 and died in October.
Christine McPhail will step into the role as president Feb. 24.
In an announcement Tuesday, the university said it had conducted an extensive national search for a new president.
“We are excited and fortunate to have an innovative, proven credential leader of Dr. Christine McPhail’s stature to lead St. Augustine’s University to the next level of excellence as we reimagine a new model of the HBCU of the future,” Justice James E. Perry, chairman of the Board of Trustees and a retired Florida Supreme Court Justice, said in the university’s release.
Christine McPhail currently serves as president and CEO of the McPhail Group LLC, and has experience in higher education. She is a professor of practice at the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership at Kansas State University and is the founding professor and director of the Community College Leadership Doctoral Program at Morgan State University in Maryland. Under McPhail’s leadership, Morgan State University received R1 Carnegie classification, indicating that the program awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees during the update year, the St. Aug’s release said.
“I am both humbled and honored to have been selected by the Saint Augustine’s University Board of Trustees to serve as its next president,” said Dr. McPhail said in the statement. “I am committed to the success of this University and each of its students. I also feel a responsibility to carry on my late husband’s work to establish the University as a 21st Century, learning-centered institution while at the same time leaning on several decades of experience in higher education leadership and strong partnerships with the SAU community to move us forward.”
Before joining Morgan State, McPhail was president of Cypress College, a community college in Cypress, California.
St. Aug’s was chartered in 1867 under the auspices of the Episcopal church. It is a historically Black school with about 750 students.
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 2:46 PM with the headline "After a nationwide search, St. Augustine’s finds its new president here in Raleigh."
