Johnny Moore went to college in 1985 hoping to become a pro basketball player, but he hasn't left a campus for longer than a summer since.
In February, he'll arrive back in his home state of Arkansas to take the helm of Arkansas State University-Newport, the state's youngest community college, during a pandemic that has hurt community college enrollment nationwide.
The college announced his hire Tuesday. He'll earn $193,284 annually, per his initial two-year contract.
Moore, the president of Pierpont Community & Technical College in Fairmont, W. Va., will start Feb. 8.
Originally from Old Washington, Ark., Moore, 54, was Philander Smith's president from 2012 until resigning in 2014.
He replaces Sandra Massey, who is retiring. Massey has been chancellor since 2013.
Arkansas State University President Chuck Welch said he wanted a chancellor like Massey, who has been well-liked and successful during her tenure. People seemed to want things to continue as they have, with a balanced budget and business partnerships, while continuing to improve the college.
Moore can do that, knows the area and has experience running a community college, including during a pandemic, Welch said. He also has a positive energy, Welch said. When Moore visited the campus last month, he greeted nearly everyone he saw.
"I couldn't be more pleased," Welch said. "I just think he's going to be the perfect fit."
ASU-Newport has three campus locations and enrolls more than 2,000 students each year. That includes high school students and prison inmates under a federal Second Chance Pell pilot program that allows prison inmates to access Pell grants for low-income students.
Moore will lead the college as the pandemic has hurt both colleges and the economy. Moore said he wants to continue to position the college to help train people for new careers and "reboot" the area's economy.
Moore describes his journey in higher education as a series of decisions that he never thought he'd make.
When he was young, he didn't know what all he could do with his life. He was the first in his family to attend college.
When Moore began teaching for the first time, at a community college, he saw himself in his students. He saw the impact he could have on them, the way college influenced him. It was the "perfect fit."
"I did not know what I did not know," he recalled of his youth. "I needed someone to help guide me and lead me."
Moore went to Philander Smith College to play basketball, while majoring in computer science. He changed his major to math because he didn't have a computer and didn't want to spend all of his time in the campus computer lab.
He then enrolled in a Master's program after he didn't make the final cut for an NBA summer league team in Los Angeles. Upon returning home to southwest Arkansas, he received a call from an Arkansas State University recruiter asking him to enroll in a graduate mathematics program, which he did.
While earning his Master's degree, Moore envisioned getting a PhD, teaching at a university and writing a textbook.
Moore started teaching, at East Arkansas Community College, because he needed a job while taking his last two classes for his Master's degree.
He moved to Florida to teach and coach women's basketball at a community college after trying to prove his fiance wrong, who said he never did romantic things. During a bad weather school closure in Forrest City, Moore took her to Disney World at spur of the moment and attended a job fair in Orlando.
He thought they'd be there a couple of years, but it turned into 16.
In Florida, he got his PhD in mathematics at the Florida Institute of Technology. After a series of academic promotions, he became an administrator at Indian River State College.
Eventually, he ended up back at Philander Smith College as its president in 2012, his first appointment at a four-year institution.
At the time, Moore had a big vision for the college but he abruptly resigned in early 2014.
Moore said Tuesday that a four-year college wasn't the right fit for him. He left Philander Smith for an interim community college leadership position in Texas. Then, in 2016, he became the president of Pierpont in West Virginia.
There he worked with lawmakers for a last-dollar community college assistance program, which provides funding to students attending community college with the remaining cost of attendance that financial aid and scholarships don't cover. Students who use it must stay in the state for a period afterward. The bill passed last year.
Recently he also has gotten the college involved in the National Science Foundation's Project Vision, which helps his college and five other community colleges build up their capacity to teach science.
West Virginia is similar to Arkansas in its low rate of educational attainment among residents, Moore said.
He wants to build on ASU-Newport's role in helping people get jobs, especially during a down economy.
Moore said wants to target adult students who have started degrees but stopped attending before finishing them. He said he wants to make sure students know what they can do with their lives and how they can get there, like he needed when he was in school.