Antoine Alston, Ph.D. reads to a class in the Child Development Laboratory on the N.C. A&T campus during the Week of the Young Child in April. Alston’s field is agricultural education.
Twenty-five years an Aggie, 49 years circling the Earth. A myriad of academic and professional accomplishments as a modern cornerstone to the nation’s largest historically Black college and university. To Antoine Alston, Ph.D., North Carolina A&T is more than a place: it’s a calling.
2025 marks a quarter-century that Alston, the associate dean of academic studies at N.C. A&T’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, has been involved with the university both as a student and faculty member.
“The mission of NC A&T, rooted in service, excellence, and opportunity for underrepresented populations, aligns with my own life’s purpose,” said Alston. “I have been fortunate to serve in a variety of capacities: professor, program coordinator, department head, and associate dean. Each role has allowed me to give back to the institution that shaped me and to play a pivotal role in its evolution as a national leader in agricultural education and research.”
A second-generation alum of N.C. A&T and a third-generation land-grant university student, Alston earned his B.S. degree in 1996 and his M.S. degree at the university in 1998, before receiving his Ph.D. in agricultural education at Iowa State University in 2000 as a George Washington Carver Doctoral Fellow at age 24. As an Aggie student, Alston received guidance through mentors such as former professor Carey Ford, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus Willie Willis, Ph.D., the late A.P. Bell, Ph.D., and current associate dean and Cooperative Extension Administrator M. Ray McKinnie.
“I would say overall though that my greatest mentor has been Dr. Alton Thompson, the former Dean of the college, who also served as my master’s thesis advisor and department chair during my collegiate years at the university,” said Alston. “Dr. Thompson has always served as the ultimate example for young African American males, exemplifying scholarship and leadership, providing a model for whom I have tried to shape my career upon.”
Since joining the CAES faculty in 2000, Alston – the youngest Ph.D. at the time to work at N.C. A&T – has designed and implemented several academic programs, including the university’s first online graduate program (a master’s program in agricultural education), a 2+2 online undergraduate agricultural education program that has served as a national model for community college students who want to transfer to four-year agricultural schools, and the Ph.D. program in agricultural and environmental sciences, the college’s first doctoral offering, in addition to the university’s first accelerated Bachelor’s-Master’s degree pathway.
In 2022, he co-authored a book about the history of New Farmers of America, which once trained Black youth to become the next generation of farmers and leaders.
Recently, Alston is the co-author and project director of the current USDA NextGen Grant (the third largest grant in the history of the university) and author of the USDA 1890 Facilities Proposal that brought the college’s Urban and Community Food Complex to life, including the initiative to reinstitute the N.C. A&T creamery for the first time since the 1970’s.
“When the complex opens, my role will focus on strategic academic integration,” said Alston. “I will help guide curriculum development and student engagement strategies to ensure that the complex serves as a living laboratory for teaching, research, and extension, as well as serve as a bridge between faculty, community partners, and urban agriculture stakeholders, ensuring the facility becomes a model for sustainable and equitable food systems.”
Alston has won numerous career accolades, including the UNC Board of Governor’s Teaching Excellence Award. In 2010, Alston was the first Black recipient of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award. Beyond the laurels and grants, the deeper reward, Alston said, is mentoring and developing the next generation of agricultural and environmental science leaders, particularly students of color who may not have otherwise seen themselves in this field.
“Over the past 25 years, I’ve had the joy of seeing my students go on to lead in government, academia, private industry, and global development,” said Alston. “That legacy of empowerment is what fuels my passion every single day.”
