N.C. A&T Names Guilford Co. Commissioner Ray Trapp Director of External Affairs

Greensboro, N.C. (April 3, 2017) – An elected official with extensive experience in governmental affairs, public policy and the North Carolina political environment has been named director of External Affairs for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, school officials announced today.

Guilford County Commissioner Ray Trapp, who has represented District 8 since 2012, was selected after an extensive search for a professional to lead the university’s interactions with federal, state and local government officials, agencies and departments.

“As a highly productive public research university with growing interests in Washington and Raleigh, as well as throughout the Piedmont Triad, North Carolina A&T is in constant dialogue with our partners in government at many levels,” said N.C. A&T Chief of Staff Nicole Pride. “Ray’s considerable background in the public sector and his experience as an elected official give him a nuanced understanding of what is required in this work. We’re pleased to have him joining the Aggie family.”

Trapp served in the U.S. Navy before earning an A.A. from Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, magna cum laude, in 2005. He subsequently earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from American Intercontinental University in Atlanta, cum laude, in 2007. 

In Greensboro, he has served as executive director of the Piedmont Triad Apartment Association, as a director of sales and leasing for E & Company within the Emerson Group and as a real estate broker at Allen Tate. He won his first election to the County Commission in 2012 and was re-elected without opposition in 2016.

Trapp’s volunteer public service has been extensive. He has chaired the Greensboro Zoning Commission and served on the boards of the Greensboro Minimum Housing Standards Commission, Affordable Housing Management, the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Welfare Reform Liaison Project.

His professional work and service have earned numerous awards, including the National Association of Counties’ 2016 Public Health Achievement Award for the “Food Desert Storm” project addressing food insecurity in Guilford County, and his inclusion in the Triad Business Journal’s 2011 “40 Business Leaders Under 40.”

Trapp’s work at A&T begins today (April 3) in the Office of the Chancellor, reporting to the chief of staff.