CHAPEL HILL -- The UNC Board of Governors have turned to a former Georgia lawmaker, longtime higher education administrator and current interim university president to be the next leader at East Carolina University.

Cecil P. Staton, interim president of Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, has been named the 11th chancellor of East Carolina University.

He will assume his new duties July 1, succeeding Steve Ballard, who announced last year that he was stepping down and is returning to the faculty.

Staton, 58, has served as vice chancellor for extended education in the University System of Georgia, as associate provost at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and on the faculty of Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Georgia. He also served 10 years as a Georgia state senator representing the state’s 18th District.

He has founded and led several companies in the fields of publishing and broadcasting. He is recognized as a leader on higher education and health care issues.

A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Staton has a bachelor's degree from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, master of theology and master of divinity degrees from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest and a doctorate from the University of Oxford in England.

Staton and his wife, Catherine, have two sons, Cecil III and William.