Belk Center Executive Director, W. Dallas Herring Professor Audrey Jaeger Named 2024 University of North Carolina System Faculty Fellow

Audrey Jaeger, W. Dallas Herring Professor in the NC State College of Education and executive director of the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, has been selected to join the 2024 University of North Carolina System Faculty Fellows. 

The Faculty Fellows program each year engages a group of faculty in issues related to academic affairs while offering mentorship and learning opportunities and promoting the effectiveness of the UNC System and its constituent institutions. 

Jaeger is one of three Faculty Fellows selected for 2024 who will focus on improving, supporting and sustaining student transfer access and success amid changing community college demographics and declining enrollment. 

“I am excited to contribute to this conversation, to help draft policy and guidelines that will influence student transfer programs across the state,” Jaeger said. “Community colleges stand to make the greatest contribution to providing each and every citizen with an education and, through transfer, even greater doors to opportunity are opened. My commitment is to honor Dr. Herring’s legacy, to break down barriers to economic mobility through the systems of education in our state, so that all generations of North Carolinians progress.”

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Currently, about 15,000 students who are positioned to earn a bachelor’s degree graduate from the North Carolina Community College System each year; however, fewer than 5,000 of those students enroll in a UNC System university and about 2,000 attend another four-year institution in the state. 

About one-third of North Carolinians currently hold a bachelor’s degree and those who earn their associate’s degree through a community college but do not continue on to earn a bachelor’s degree are precluded from 60% of entry-level jobs in high-demand fields in the state, Jaeger said. 

“My work will focus on increasing access to transfer degrees that support our local economies and our statewide demand for additional bachelor’s degree completers,” she said. “If we help 5,000 more North Carolinians transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree, we will meet North Carolina’s workforce needs and help the state generate an additional $46M per year. My work — and the work of the Belk Center and our esteemed partners — centers on this incredible statewide opportunity.”