Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK) has named Dr. Raymond Staats, president of Craven Community College in North Carolina, to its Presidential Advisory Board.
He joins 38 other college presidents from across the nation on the board and will provide input into the organization’s strategic plan, priorities, and direction. Advisory Board members advocate for Phi Theta Kappa, its members, and its mission; serve as liaisons between PTK headquarters and the college leaders in their states; and advise the Society’s Executive Director and other senior leaders.
Phi Theta Kappa goes beyond recognition to serve as a pathway to student success and completion by providing scholarships and opportunities to its members for individual growth and development — work that would not be possible without the support of college presidents like Staats. The Presidential Advisory Board was established in 2015.
Staats became the fifth president of Craven Community College in 2015. He has more than 20 years of teaching and leadership experience in higher education. He began his career as a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, first as a Space and Missile Operations officer before transitioning to faculty and administrative positions in higher education. At the Air Force Institute of Technology, he taught graduate courses in Operations Research. He served as president of the Community College of the Air Force before retiring from the military in 2009 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Prior to joining Craven, he was an Operations Research Analyst for the United States Army’s Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Staats holds degrees from Syracuse University, the Air Force Institute of Technology, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and he’s a graduate of Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education.
