This story originally published online at The Assembly.
Kevin Howell owes his life to North Carolina State University. Now he will lead it.
In a 2023 commencement address to graduates of the university’s College of Textiles—his daughter among them—Howell explained that in 2015, his kidneys failed while he was working for outgoing Chancellor Randy Woodson. A year later, Lindsay Recchie, one of his coworkers and currently Woodson’s interim chief of staff, donated him a kidney.
“Her selfless gift was literally and figuratively sewn into my fabric that day,” he said.
Now the University of North Carolina Board of Governors has appointed Howell to replace Woodson, becoming its 15th chancellor and the first Black person to hold the role.
“We need a leader who understands that N.C. State’s strengths as a land-grant university come from its bone-deep connection to North Carolina, to our state’s needs, our aspirations, our drive to compete and build and improve lives from the mountains to the coast,” said UNC System President Peter Hans.
“State needs a leader who understands that this university’s greatest innovation is the melding of practical wisdom and academic expertise in the service of public good,” Hans continued. “And I’m proud that we have just such a leader—a person who not only believes in the transformational power of this great university, but has lived it.”
Howell’s deep connections to the university go beyond his kidney.
As a political science student at N.C. State, he was elected student body president in 1987—the first Black person to hold that role, too. After earning a law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and working in government affairs, Howell returned to N.C. State, spending 10 years as assistant to the chancellor for external affairs.
Howell then served as vice chancellor for external affairs, partnerships, and economic development before leading external affairs at the UNC System. Most recently, Howell has been chief external affairs officer for UNC Health, lobbying the legislature on behalf of the medical system.
“Kevin Howell is a leader with incredible connection- and relationship-building skills,” Ed Weisiger, chair of the N.C. State Board of Trustees, said in a press release. “He is a trusted partner to those he leads and to those with whom he interacts and works. In short, Kevin simply makes organizations better and healthier by working in them.”
Howell’s long ties to N.C. State, and to Woodson, provide continuity as the university moves on from a chancellor who stayed in the job three times longer than average. Woodson has been in the role since 2010, transforming the university during his tenure. It shot up 53 spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, quadrupled its endowment, and brought in nearly $600 million a year in research spending, according to a webpage set up to honor Woodson’s impact.
In a profile of Woodson last year, Hans told The Assembly and The Chronicle of Higher Education, “It’s a challenge to follow someone who had such a successful tenure.” But in his statement recommending Howell, Hans said, “To me, he represents a blend of continuity and change—continuity with the progress that’s already in motion and change that’s necessary to go to another level.”
Howell is the eighth chancellor that Hans has appointed across the 17-campus system in the past year and a half.
In his 2023 commencement address, Howell urged students to think about the “collective tapestry” of their shared experiences—like his with Recchie.
“How will you continue to expand and grow the tapestry?” he asked them. “What lives might you touch? What impact might you have on your community and on our nation?”
As chancellor, he’ll provide his own answer.
Matt Hartman is a higher education reporter at The Assembly. He’s also written for The New Republic, The Ringer, Jacobin, and other outlets. Contact him at matt@theassemblync.com.