Dr. Steven E. Hairston of Raleigh, NC has been named the vice president for Institutional Advancement and chief operating officer at Saint Augustine’s University (SAU) effective September 8, 2014. In this role, he will report to Interim President Ward and has responsibility for all University development and fund-raising, alumni relations and external affairs. As chief operating officer, he will direct, administer and coordinate the internal operational activities of the University in accordance with policies, goals and objectives established by the President and the Board of Trustees.

Prior to SAU, he served as a public administrator with more than 25 years of experience in the state government and non-profit sectors. Most recently, he served as the strategic planning manager for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, where his role was developing and managing the agency’s strategic planning framework that aligns resources needed to deliver public safety programs and services of the Department. In addition, he was responsible for assisting the leadership of the Department develop outcome based performance plans that articulated the goals, objectives and vision of the agency, in order to better align resources to meets it mission. Prior to his role with the Department of Public Safety, he served in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services with the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services where he was the chief of the Operations Support Section.

In addition to his Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) degree from Virginia Union University, he received a Masters in Public Administration from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in leadership studies from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University where he was a Waldaran L. Kennedy 4.0 GPA scholar. He holds certificates from the Center for Legal Studies and the Duke University-Nonprofit Management Program and completed a fellowship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School and the School of Public Health of the University of North Carolina (UNC-CH). He has held designation as a Certified Public Manager (CPM) since 2003.