James L. Oblinger is the 13th Chancellor of North Carolina State University. Since coming to NC State in 1986, he has served as provost and executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, and as associate dean of academic programs and later dean and director of Agricultural Programs for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Prior to his leadership roles at NC State, he served as a professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Florida, and associate dean and director of resident instruction at the University of Missouri-Columbia’s College of Agriculture.
As Chancellor of NC State, Dr. Oblinger has worked to make higher education accessible and affordable through the creation of NC State’s Pack Promise, a financial aid program providing low-income students and their families the opportunity to attend NC State without excessive debt. He also has directed campus-wide efforts to focus resources on educating students from kindergarten through graduate school in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. As a strong advocate of international partnerships, he has promoted NC State internationally as a leading research-extensive university with a variety of educational and exchange opportunities for faculty, students, scholars and business executives, leading to agreements with universities in China, India and South America.
He has continued the development of NC State’s award-winning Centennial Campus, an international model for fostering innovative interaction between government, business and industry, as well as higher education to address critical and emerging issues. Dr. Oblinger led the establishment of the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) on Centennial Campus, where students and prospective employees receive training in biotechnology and biomanufacturing. Through his leadership, NC State completed a successful $1 billion capital campaign, raising $1.3 billion for the university.
He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Council on Competitiveness, the American Association for Higher Education, past-president of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, and a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists. He chairs the National Academy of Sciences Leadership Summit to Effect Change in Teaching and Learning and serves on the American Council on Education Commission on Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity. He is President of the Academic Consortium 21 (AC21), an international consortium of research universities interested in global trends in higher education, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and was appointed by North Carolina Governor Michael Easley to serve on the NC Institute of Medicine. He received the Iowa State University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 2006.
Dr. Oblinger received his B.A. from DePauw University in bacteriology and his M.S. and Ph.D. in food technology from Iowa State University. He is married to Dr. Diana G. Oblinger, President of EDUCAUSE. They have four sons, all of whom have attended NC State.
Dr. Oblinger was appointed to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by President Bush in 2008.
