Executive Vice President and Provost of Teaching, Learning, and Student Success

Clayton Railey earned his Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and bachelor’s degrees in English and economics from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Railey joined Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) in January 2018 as executive vice president and provost of Teaching, Learning, and Student Success. In this role, he provides leadership, direction, and oversight to programs and initiatives that work to improve student success, an area that he strongly supports.

Between earning his undergraduate degrees and his doctorate, Dr. Railey entered the Society of Jesus, a religious order of the Catholic Church, where he began studying for the priesthood. His studies took him from Baltimore, Maryland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; St. Louis, Missouri; and Berkeley, California. He also studied in Hong Kong, China, and Munich, Germany. He became an ordained Jesuit priest in 1987.

After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Railey worked at St. Ignatius Loyola Academy in Baltimore, where he opened the 7th and 8th grades in a new middle school for boys and helped transition members of its first graduating class to high schools in the area.

Dr. Railey left the Jesuits in 1996 to teach English and philosophy at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Maryland.  After 11 years, he moved on to an administrative position at Delaware County Community College, where he served as dean of Arts & Humanities for the next seven years.  In 2014, Dr. Railey became the provost for Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where he integrated credit and non-credit health professions programs and strengthened the workforce development programs. In 2016, Dr. Railey returned to Chesapeake College to serve as the vice president of workforce and academic programs.

Born in Washington, D.C., Dr. Railey attended school in his early years at Georgetown Prep in Garrett Park, Maryland.