Rocky Mount, N.C.—North Carolina Wesleyan College elected a new chairman and vice chairman of its board of trustees at a board meeting in May.

Velma Harrison Johnson of Rocky Mount succeeds Dr. William B. Pittman, a Rocky Mount physician, who had served as board chairman since 2005 and vice chairman since 2001. He will continue as a trustee.

Vel Johnson has served as vice chairman of Wesleyan’s board since 2005. She recently chaired Wesleyan’s presidential search committee, which selected James A. Gray III to lead Wesleyan as president, beginning June 1. She has helped guide Wesleyan as a trustee since 1998, serving as chair of both the education and enrollment management committees and the committee on trustees for the past several years. Prior to becoming a trustee, she and her husband, Sam Johnson, co-chaired Wesleyan’s annual fundraiser, Day for Wesleyan, in 1997.

In 2004, Wesleyan awarded its highest honor for a member of the community, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, to Johnson. In presenting the award, Thomas A. Betts, Jr., then chairman of Wesleyan’s board of trustees, recognized Johnson for her “commitment, conviction, courage, and courtesy.” In 2008, both Johnson and her husband received the Boy Scouts Distinguished Citizen Award.

A 1969 graduate of Duke University, Johnson has also done additional coursework in the Duke Non-Profit Management Institute. Her career has included service as a regional representative for the Easter Seal Foundation, a social worker with the Edgecombe-Nash Mental Health Center, executive director of the Nash-Rocky Mount Mental health Association, and a partner in the event planning business of Johnson & Pittman Associates, from which she has retired. She has been an active volunteer in the community and in her church, Lakeside Baptist Church.

“This is an exciting time at North Carolina Wesleyan College,” Johnson said. “Our president-elect, James A. Gray III, brings a wealth of experience in communication, branding, fundraising, public relations, and business management, along with great personal energy and enthusiasm, which is contagious. He comes with proven leadership experience from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Flagler Business School, two of the most outstanding business schools in the country. He speaks of Wesleyan as America’s next great college and as a student-centric institution. I look forward to beginning this new chapter in the life of this institution, which so positively impacts this area and makes such a difference in so many people’s lives.”

New Vice Chairman

Wesleyan’s trustees also elected Rocky Mount native Vincent C. Andracchio II as vice chairman of the board. A Wesleyan trustee since 1996, he has served as chairman of the finance committee and as a member of the buildings and grounds committee, technology committee, and audit committee.

Andracchio earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration at Wake Forrest University. He is the current president and CEO of Guardian Holdings Inc., a privately owned holding company in Rocky Mount.

He believes in giving back to the community and does so in many ways. He has served as chairman of Rocky Mount Academy’s board of trustees and as a past board member and president of the Lucy Ann Boddie Brewer Boys and Girls Club. He also serves on RBC bank’s local board and on Nash General Hospital’s board of commissioners.