Assistant​/Associate Professor of Practice - Extension Community & Economic Development Specialist

Posting Details

Classification Information

Classification Type
EHRA

Position Overview

Primary Purpose of Position
The primary focus of this position will be Community and Economic Development ( CED ), ensuring that communities have the tools and resources to enhance their socio-economic potential. This position provides educational leadership in the development, management, implementation, and evaluation of research-based, integrative statewide Extension programs that meet the needs of limited-resource and socially disadvantaged audiences. It delivers training and educational support materials for field staff and their clientele/customers to advance community growth and economic resilience, aligning with the philosophy, policy, and overall mission, goals, and educational objectives of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Program.

Specifically, this position builds the capacity of communities to achieve optimal well-being by growing grassroots leaders to address local challenges, assisting in risk management and disaster preparedness planning, and tackling other community-based issues related to economic development.

This is a non-tenured track faculty ( NTTF ), twelve-month position at the rank of “Assistant/Associate Professor of Practice – Extension CED Specialist” in North Carolina A&T Cooperative Extension. Position’s incumbent is eligible for title promotion and academically housed in the Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics, and Agri Science Education.

As NTTF faculty, this position can be released, up to 25% of time and effort once per year, to teach for-credit academic coursework.

Primary Function of Organizational Unit

N.C. A&T is a public, land-grant, doctoral research institution and has been the largest historically Black university in the country for the past decade. With an enrollment of 14,311 students in Fall 2024, the university offers 59 undergraduate degree programs, 36 master’s programs, and 12 doctoral programs. It is America’s top producer of Black graduates in Engineering and Agricultural Science bachelor’s programs, as well as a top five producer in numerous additional disciplines, including Liberal Arts and Communications/Journalism.

It also ranks no. 3 in master’s degrees awarded to Black graduates in Engineering Technologies and Related Fields, no. 4 in master’s degrees in Engineering, and no. 11 best business school for women in the nation.

Nationally recognized for its leadership and excellence in STEM education and research, N.C. A&T is classified as “R2-High Research Activity” in the Carnegie Classifications and is poised to achieve “R1-Very High Research Activity” status. It also holds Carnegie’s earned credential in Community Engagement and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities ( APLU ) Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation. With an annual economic impact of $2.4 billion, N.C. A&T plays a vital role as a higher-education economic driver in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region and across a state that is ranked No.

1 in the nation for the second straight year as “best for business” by the CNBC financial network.

The Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is an educational outreach organization within the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Cooperative Extension at A&T provides researched-based educational information, programming and technical assistance to limited-resource audiences that address a diverse range of issues in four programmatic areas – Agriculture and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, Community and Rural Development, and 4-H Youth Development.

Together with its partners – North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, state and county governments, a dynamic and resourceful system is formed. In addition to campus operations, The Cooperative Extension Program has professionally staffed offices in almost half of the 100 counties in North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Nation.

Minimum Requirements

• Requires Ph.D – an earned doctorate in rural sociology, community resource…