Irving Pressley McPhail

Irving Pressley McPhail was named the sixth president and Chief Executive Officer of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME) on September 1, 2009 (www.nacme.org). He joined NACME in 2007 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, he founded and served as principal of The McPhail Group LLC. He served 15 years as a college president or chancellor at The Community College of Baltimore County, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, and LeMoyne-Owen College. Under his leadership, The Community College of Baltimore County was named one of 12 Vanguard Learning Colleges in the U.S. and Canada in 2000 by the League for Innovation in the Community College; won the Bellwether Award in the category of Planning, Finance and Governance in 2000; and was awarded the PBS O’Banion Prize for Leading the Way to Change in Teaching and Learning in 2003.
Dr. McPhail also served as Chief Operating Officer of the Baltimore City Public Schools. He has held
tenured full professorships at three colleges and universities, and served as an affiliate or visiting
professor at the University of Maryland at College Park, the University of Pennsylvania, and Morgan
State University. His many awards include the Ira D. and Rubye Hibler Hall Endowed Heritage Lecture Series Award from Langston University, the Alumni of Color Achievement Award from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Pioneer Award from the National Council on Black American Affairs of the American Association of Community Colleges.