Peter Hans is the President of the University of North Carolina System, a position he assumed in August 2020 after serving as the ninth president of the North Carolina Community College System starting in 2018. A first-generation college graduate, he grew up in the small coastal town of Southport and the mountain town of Hendersonville, both in North Carolina. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Liberal Arts in extension studies from Harvard University. His professional career includes serving as senior policy adviser to U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth from 1995 to 1999 and to then-U.S. Representative Richard Burr from 1999 to 2001, as well as advising Elizabeth Dole during her successful U.S. Senate campaign.