For more information contact:  Joni Worthington (919) 962-4629 or worthj@northcarolina.edu

July 25, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Martinez to Serve as Acting Chancellor Winston-Salem State University

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Pedro L. Martinez, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Winston-Salem State University, will serve as acting chancellor of the institution following the July 27 departure of Interim Chancellor Michelle Howard-Vital.  Martinez, appointed to the temporary post by UNC President Erskine Bowles, will lead WSSU until the August 15 arrival of incoming Chancellor Donald Reaves, whom the UNC Board of Governors has elected to succeed former Chancellor Harold Martin.  Howard-Vital is stepping down two weeks early to become president of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.

Martinez, who joined WSSU as provost in 2005, holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in education from the University of Hartford in Connecticut and a doctorate in social foundations from Loyola University in Chicago.  From 1997-2005, he served as assistant vice president for academic affairs and associate dean of graduate studies at William Paterson University in New Jersey.  Previously, he had spent nearly two decades at Chicago State University as a faculty member and administrator.