“As a postsecondary institution, I think it’s our job not just to be proud of the accolades…but to be conscious of ‘Who are we missing? Who wants a better life but can’t figure out how to get there?’” 

– Gregory Adam Haile, president of Broward College

Gregory Adam Haile, who serves as the president of Broward College in Florida, will deliver the 2021 Dallas Herring Lecture. The event will be held virtually on Tuesday, Nov. 16 from 1-3 p.m. It is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

The annual lecture, hosted by North Carolina State University’s College of Education and the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, is an invitation for community college leaders from around the country to speak on issues impacting community colleges. Since 2015, the Dallas Herring Lecture has “focused on national issues contextualized to North Carolina.”

In this year’s lecture, titled “Redefining Access: The Power of Proximity,” Haile reimagines higher education access through a collaborative, replicable, and disruptive model.

“Community colleges were designed to magnify access to higher education, to remove geographic and economic barriers, and to provide educational service to the entire community. While the current model has had many successes, there is still great work to be done. Through the power of proximity, breaking the confines of current access models, there’s opportunity to realize the basis for their existence.”

– The Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research

Dr. Audrey Jaeger, executive director of the Belk Center, said, “Broward College is one of the leading community colleges in the country, and I know that is in part due to the leadership of Gregory Haile. We are incredibly fortunate to learn from President Haile as he delivers this year’s Dallas Herring Lecture, which will touch on critical issues such as equity and access. His insight will be a valuable addition to conversations around student success taking place in community colleges across North Carolina.”

In previous interviews, Haile said his vision for Broward College — to create greater opportunity, access, and vision to pursue a greater life through postsecondary education — came from his own background.

“I grew up in an area called South Jamaica, Queens, New York. It was 1989. I was in sixth grade and I was talking to another sixth grader, a classmate, and he was clearly more affluent than I was. And he said, ‘We’re going to be the last class of the millennium because we’re going to graduate college in 1999.’ And that was the first time that I ever heard the word college. And it was that disparity that I carried with me through adulthood into today. It should not be fortuitous that anyone, regardless of their neighborhood, hear about college.”

Gregory Adam Haile, president of Broward College

Gregory Adam Haile is the seventh president of Broward College. He assumed the role on July 1, 2018.  He has served in more than 40 board or committee capacities and in more than 20 chair or vice-chair capacities. He is past chair of the board of Leadership Florida, and currently serves on numerous boards, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Florida Chamber. 

The Dallas Herring Lecture is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 16 from 1-3 p.m. EST. 

There will be a live panel discussion immediately following the lecture with thought leaders from community colleges around the country. The panel will include: Dr. Pamela Senegal, president of Piedmont Community College; Lee D. Lambert, chancellor of Pima Community College in Arizona; and Dr. Sunita “Sunny” Cooke, superintendent and president of MiraCosta Community College District in California.

To register for the virtual event, click here.

EdNC will live tweet the event, so follow us on Twitter @emlybrthomas and @Awake58NC.

Correction: A previous edition of this article incorrectly stated 1990 as the year Haile would graduate college. It should be 1999.