Join us for our Monthly lecture series: Coffee at the Museum!
Thursday, March 23, 2023 @ 10:00am
GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Joel Welch, President of Western Piedmont Community College
Prior to joining Western Piedmont Community College on July 1, 2020, Joel D. Welch, Ph.D., PE, worked almost 10 years as a consulting engineer before joining Greenville Technical College as an instructor in hazardous Material Technologies. Dr. Welch is a licensed professional engineer and worked on civil and environmental projects across the country. He has spent the past 24 years working in community colleges where he started as an instructor in hazardous materials technology and was honored to serve as a department chair, Dean and Provost prior to be named as the 7th president of Western Piedmont Community College.
During his time at WPCC thus far, he was a member of the 2020-2021 Aspen Presidential Fellowship, which is a highly selected leadership program preparing the next generation of community college presidents to transform institutions to achieve higher and more equitable levels of student success. He also competed the college’s strategic plan: Vision 2025. This included a new vision statement that WPCC is a transformational community leader that empowers all individuals to achieve success.
Dr. Welch serves on the Burke County Health Department Board of Directors, the Burke Development Incorporated (BDI) Board and the Board of Trustees for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. In 2021, he was selected for the Belk Center’s Rural College Leaders Program. The Rural College Leaders Program is a cohort of 10 North Carolina rural colleges selected to work together to address systemic barriers and close gaps in completion rates for students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, and those living in rural communities. The program will build networks of practice, sharing promising models of improving and sustaining equitable student outcomes that incorporate college-level and statewide policy changes. Dr. Welch brings together industry, secondary and post-secondary educational entities, to develop pathways that support student success through projects such as apprenticeship programs, NSF funded projects, industry recognized certifications, and open educational resources. These projects and grants have all focused on developing pathways to a successful career for students while reducing their cost. He has published articles and presented to numerous industries on developing a highly skilled workforce. Dr. Welch has served as an evaluator for SACSCOC, program evaluator for the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, board member for South Carolina Skills USA, and as a member of the North Carolina Community College System Curriculum Course Review Committee.
He grew up in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina and received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering from The University of South Carolina and a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership from Clemson University. Joel lives in Valdese NC with his wonderful wife, Lisa and their youngest child.