Former College of William and Mary President Gene Nichol has been named Director of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.

The center was created in 2005 to raise awareness and develop strategies to alleviate poverty.

“The Poverty Center has a talented and dedicated staff and an ambitious multi-departmental advisory board comprised of scholars from throughout the University,” Nichol said in a press release. “We’ll see the center continue to address the needs of the poor.”

The center’s former director, professor Marion Crain, left North Carolina to join the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Prior to serving as the College’s president, Nichol had served as dean of the law schools at both the University of Colorado and UNC.

He served as the president of the College from 2005 until 2008, when he resigned upon learning he would not be asked after his contract expired.

Currently, Nichol is a faculty member of North Carolina’s law school.