Granville Man Uses VGCC As Boost To College Teaching Career, Doctorate

Granville County native Ron Alligood II had his bachelor’s degree and teaching certificate. He had a job he liked, and he could have become complacent.

But he didn’t, and he turned to Vance-Granville Community College to help spur him on to bigger and better things. 

Alligood was born in Butner, the son of Ron and Linda Alligood. His father is well-known as a member and past chairman of the Granville County Board of Commissioners. Ron II grew up in Butner and in the Wilton area, and he graduated from South Granville High School. He attended Campbell University and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English, with a concentration in Spanish. 

A short stint at selling shoes convinced Alligood to return to Campbell to get his teaching certificate. With that, he went to work at Hawley Middle School in Creedmoor as a Spanish instructor and football coach. He also coached junior varsity baseball at South Granville High, although he says he didn’t excel in either sport in high school. 

Ron then moved to the Whittaker School at John Umstead Hospital in Butner, teaching the GED and counseling. After a year there, he went to the Federal Prison at Butner as an education specialist.

Alligood said he had been observing the medical activities around John Umstead and decided he wanted to become a nurse. He investigated all methods of nursing training. He realized he could have gone to a four-year school and received a bachelor’s degree, or he could have completed a diploma program.

“But after looking at all aspects, I decided that Vance-Granville was the best opportunity for me,” he said. “It was convenient and very inexpensive and affordable.” 

Alligood began taking his pre-health requisite courses while continuing to work as a counselor at Whittaker School. When he reached the certified nursing assistant II level of training in the Associate Degree Nursing program, he began to work part-time at Granville Medical Center in Oxford. He said the people at the hospital were great to him and, upon graduation with his ADN degree in 1995, he went to work full-time at Granville Medical as an operating room nurse. 

Seeking more experiences in nursing, Alligood moved to Duke University Hospital to worked in cardiac-thoracic surgery. “There I saw what physician assistants were doing, such as removing blood vessels for transplant, and I decided I wanted to be able to do that, too,” Alligood said. So he decided to pursue a master’s degree, which he earned in adult acute care from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., in 2000. 

How did Ron Alligood’s Associate Degree Nursing training translate to the master’s program at VCU? “Vance-Granville Community College gave me a very good understanding of nursing, particularly the clinical/ practical side of it,” he said. “Actually, I was ahead of nurses who had bachelor’s degrees in the clinical side so I could concentrate on the theory that is so much a part of the master’s program.” 

He praised his nursing instruction at VGCC and the anatomy and physiology classes he had. 

Still eager for knowledge, Ron Alligood entered the Ph.D. program at VCU and finished all his course work in 2002. He has to complete his examinations and dissertation to earn his doctorate.

While he works on those, he lives in Washington, N.C., and works as a clinical instructor of undergraduate nursing at East Carolina University.  

The subject of Ron Alligood’s doctoral dissertation is “The Pattern of Despair of People with Spinal Cord Injury.” 

“I’ve found that young, active men are more likely to suffer spinal cord injury, from motorcycle accidents, falling from tree stands and other accidents related to an active lifestyle,” he said. “When they lose bodily functions and become paralyzed, then despair sets in. I hope to shed light on that in my dissertation.” 

After receiving his doctorate, Alligood plans to continue research into spinal cord injury so as to further illuminate society on its effects. He also plans to continue to teach nursing at the university level in North Carolina.

Vance-Granville Community College helped open Ron Alligood’s eyes to a whole new facet of life, and he’s not about to let go of it now.