Superintendent of Lenoir County Public Schools since 2016, Brent Williams is the 2021 A. Craig Phillips North Carolina Superintendent of the Year and a candidate for the national award presented by the American Association of School Administrators.

Mr. Williams won the state award in December 2020 after being selected as one of eight regional superintendents of the year. He represented 14 counties as the Southeast Education Alliance Superintendent of the Year.

His tenure as superintendent has been marked by strong positive trends for the district – rising test scores, record-high graduation rate, record-low dropout rate, dramatic declines in the discipline rate, year-to-year gains in grant awards and scholarship dollars and a region-leading dual enrollment program that provides a path for students to earn up to two years of college credits while still in high school.

Superintendent Williams currently serves as Region 2 president and a member of the board of directors of the North Carolina Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He is the Southeast Region representative on the Executive Board of the North Carolina School Superintendents Association. Other professional affiliations include membership in the North Carolina Association of School Administrators, Southeast Education Alliance, Southeast Alliance Council of Superintendents and UNC World View Council of Advisors.

He is the rare school superintendent who has grown up professionally in the school district he’s come to lead.

He was named associate superintendent in June 2015 after serving as LCPS's executive director of operations for three years. In August, when his predecessor announced plans to retire, the Lenoir County Board of Education tapped Mr. Williams as interim superintendent effective January 1, 2016.

The school board named him superintendent on March 16, 2016.

Mr. Williams, of Kinston, started with the system in 1993 as an English teacher at North Lenoir High School. After nine years as a teacher, including earlier stints at C.B. Aycock and North Pitt high schools, he worked as an assistant principal at Pink Hill Elementary and Rochelle Middle School. In 2002, he became the district’s director of testing and accountability.

He has held principalships at three LCPS schools – Contentnea Elementary, E.B. Frink Middle and North Lenoir High School. He returned to the district office from North Lenoir in July 2012.

A native of Mount Olive and the son of educators, Mr. Williams earned undergraduate degrees from Barton College and Mount Olive College and a master of school administration degree and licensure certifications from East Carolina University. He is a candidate for a doctor of education degree in educational leadership from ECU.

He was chosen as Teacher of the Year at North Lenoir in 1997 and was twice named LCPS Principal of the Year, while at Contentnea in 2004 and at North Lenoir in 2009.

Mr. Williams and his wife, Amy, have two children, Austin and Abigail.