Huntsville, Alabama · Founded 1961 · Blue Eagles
“Reimagine Your Future — the HBCU trade campus where Huntsville builds its workforce”
Drake State's Wrapped in Love initiative, launched in 2021: students, staff, and local partners collect soft new blankets for breast-cancer patients going through chemotherapy at Clearview Cancer Institute. Embedded on the college's official event page.
WHNT News 19 (CBS Huntsville) coverage of the on-campus student food pantry opening — the newest student-support service at the college.
WHNT News 19 on the $500,000 National Science Foundation SEED grant for semiconductor workforce development — a three-college HBCU collaborative led by Drake State with Trenholm State and Lawson State.
From Drake State's own YouTube channel: the Women's History Month 'Huntsville Sheroes' series profiling Karen J. Smith, one of four Drake State women of character, fortitude, and professionalism honored by the college.
Profile video for J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College embedded on the school's 2018 encyclopedia-style profile page — a general overview of the Huntsville HBCU trade campus.
Named a 2024 New Century Workforce Scholar — a national Phi Theta Kappa workforce-education honor (drakestate.edu news)
Computer Information Systems alumnus; earned an associate degree plus three IT certifications in two years (official drakestate.edu testimonial)
Pioneer of Drake State's Salon Management and Barbering Technology programs; the Powers Center cosmetology training facility is named for her (program builder/staff)
Served as Head Counselor for Project Nexus at J.F. Drake State Technical College; later elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1983 and re-elected in 1986 and 1990 (staff)
Associate dean of instruction at Drake State, then acting/interim president (2015–2017); later president of Trenholm State Community College (leader)
Interim president of Drake State (Aug–Nov 2018); later president of Lawson State Community College (leader)
Featured in Drake State news for earning a Doctorate of Nursing after starting in the college's nursing pathway
The Alabama State Board of Education authorized a new vocational-technical school in Huntsville, founded explicitly to serve African-American students in still-segregated Alabama. Alabama A&M University deeded roughly 32 acres of land for the campus. The school opened as the Huntsville State Vocational Technical College — one building, three programs: brick masonry, cosmetology, and auto mechanics.
Classes commenced on September 4, 1962, with just 27 students across the three trade programs. S.C. O'Neal took office as the school's first president, a post he would hold for 21 years. The entire operation fit in a single building on the land Alabama A&M had deeded over.
The campus core went up in a single mid-century-modern push: Building 300 (culinary arts and the Cafetorium), Building 400 (welding and automotive), and Building 500 (business, IT, medical assisting). All three survive today, heavily renovated in places but still carrying their original fittings and layouts in others — the architectural signature of the campus.
The school was renamed J. F. Drake State Technical Trade School in honor of Dr. Joseph Fanning Drake, the longtime president of Alabama A&M University (more than 35 years) and a 1916 graduate of Talladega College. The renaming tied the young trade school's identity to the most prominent Black educational leader in North Alabama.
In the thick of the civil-rights era, Drake State desegregated — becoming the first desegregated postsecondary technical school in the United States. For a school created six years earlier specifically for Black students under segregation, the milestone closed a deliberate chapter of Alabama history.
The Alabama State Board of Education granted technical-college status, and the school became J.F. Drake State Technical College. The board authorized the Associate in Applied Technology degree — the first time the school could award a college-level degree rather than trade certificates alone.
Johnny L. Harris succeeded founding president S.C. O'Neal, beginning a 17-year tenure. The Harris years were the long middle chapter of the school's life as a technical college — steady, unglamorous, and focused on trades.
Dr. Helen McAlpine took office as the first woman president of Drake State. Her 15-year tenure would end in controversy: in November 2015 the Alabama Community College System placed her on administrative leave pending an investigation into the allocation of grant funding under her administration, leading to her forced retirement in 2016.
The forwardmost building on campus opened: a three-story Library and Technology Center named for founding president S.C. O'Neal, with general-studies classrooms, two computer labs, a two-story library, and the president's and dean's offices on the third floor. It became the architectural pillar of the campus.
Regional accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges — the single most consequential bureaucratic win in the school's history. It unlocked transfer agreements with every public four-year institution in Alabama, letting Drake State graduates carry their credits to a bachelor's degree.
The state granted comprehensive community-college status and approved the new name: J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College. Drake State became the first and only higher-education institution in Alabama with that naming convention — a full two-year community college that kept its technical trade programs. The name change the school had petitioned for since accreditation finally landed.
After McAlpine's ouster, the chancellor installed Kemba Chambers — then dean of mathematics, natural sciences, and pre-engineering at Calhoun Community College and a former associate dean of instruction at Drake State — first as acting president, then interim. The leadership churn continued with Christopher A. Lewis (interim, June 2017–July 2018) and Cynthia Anthony (interim, August–November 2018) before a permanent president arrived.
Dr. Patricia Sims, who had spent more than 12 years at Drake State as director of student services management and dean of instructional and student services before becoming dean of the College of Education at Athens State University, was named president. She brought a bachelor's from the University of West Alabama, a master's from Alabama A&M, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Vanderbilt's Peabody College.
Alabama A&M and Drake State signed a memorandum of understanding letting students start at Drake State and transfer credits to AAMU — formalizing the pipeline between the two historically Black institutions that share a fence line and a founding land deed.
Drake State marked 60 years with a year-long anniversary celebration beginning in April 2021. The same year, NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project awarded the college about $1.2 million to expand its Frontiers Research Program — one of six institutions nationally to receive the INCLUDES-style award — funding STEM workforce development and free STEM programs for Huntsville middle and high schoolers.
A landmark year for external validation. Drake State partnered with Huntsville Hospital on a licensed practical nursing program; President Biden appointed Dr. Sims to the President's National Infrastructure Advisory Council — the only Alabama representative among 27 leaders; the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded Drake State a $2.4 million Connecting Minority Communities broadband grant, making it one of the first five universities and the first HBCU to receive it; and AAMU president Dr. Daniel K. Wims delivered the Drake State commencement address at Louis Crews Stadium.
Dr. Sims was selected to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Regional Energy Resource Council for a two-year term (2023–2025), advising TVA on energy resource strategy during its Integrated Resource Plan process — another seat at a table where community-college presidents rarely sit.
Drake State became a Leidos subcontractor on NASA's AEGIS contract, launched the Huntsville Tech FAME chapter — an apprenticeship-style advanced-manufacturing program backed by Blue Origin, Toyota Alabama, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, and others — won a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Labor Strengthening Community Colleges grant (the first college in Alabama to receive it), and, on November 7, 2024, was accepted into the NJCAA and ACCC — marking the start of its athletic journey after 63 years without varsity sports.
The 50,000-square-foot Leidos Advanced Training Complex — an $11 million, ASPIRE 2030 cornerstone funded through the 2020 statewide education bond — opened with a ribbon-cutting headlined by Dr. Sims, Leidos CEO Tom Bell, and ACCS chancellor Jimmy Baker. The complex houses precision machining, welding, additive manufacturing, mechatronics, electrical technology, and engineering design, and became the home of the Huntsville Tech FAME cohort.
The Alabama House introduced HR254 commending Drake State on its 65th anniversary, and the Huntsville City Council passed its own 65th-anniversary resolution. The same year brought a paid Boeing Technical Apprenticeship Program on Drake State's campus, a $500,000 National Science Foundation SEED grant for semiconductor workforce development that Drake State leads with fellow HBCUs Trenholm State and Lawson State, and — in October — the opening of an on-campus student food pantry covered by WHNT News 19.
Drake State was accepted into the NJCAA and the Alabama Community College Conference on November 7, 2024 — 'marking the start of its athletic journey,' in the college's own words. With varsity sports barely a year old as of this writing, no rivalries exist yet. This section is marked unverified rather than invented.
Drake State has no marching band and never has — it is a ~1,000-student community and technical college whose student life centers on workforce programs, clubs like SkillsUSA and Phi Theta Kappa, and events like the annual car show and the Mr. and Ms. Drake State pageant. There are no band directors to list; marking this honestly rather than padding it.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
No Greek-letter organizations; the student organizations listed by the college are program and honor clubs (Phi Theta Kappa, Phi Beta Lambda, SkillsUSA, Cyber Security Club, Entrepreneurship Club, Student Ambassadors). Checked Wikipedia's student-life section, the college catalog history, and the drakestate.edu news archive — nothing on fraternities or sororities, and no Divine Nine chapter appears on any national roster. For a ~1,000-student technical college, this is the honest answer.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
The college's first purpose-built academic landmark named for its founding president. The three-story Library and Technology Center sits at the front of campus and holds general-studies classrooms, two computer labs, a two-story library, and the third-floor executive suite with the offices of the president and the dean.
Building 200 — home to the Electrical Engineering, Industrial Systems, and Machine Tool Technology programs — got a full renovation to meet current technology needs. It also houses the Office of Career Coaching plus a Veteran's Services office and veteran student lounge.
The 'Original Drake Campus' building (ca. 1961) was renovated; its cosmetology wing became the Powers Center, named for Norma L. Powers, a pioneer of the college's Salon Management and Barbering Technology programs. The center — about 80% of the building — is a working cosmetology, barbering, and salon-management training facility that also houses the Student Center and Campus Security.
A fully off-grid training lab for geothermal heating-and-cooling installation, with a 60-gallon solar thermal water heater, 12 solar panels, and an electric-vehicle charging station powered entirely by solar. A physical statement of the college's bet on renewable-energy trades.
After earning SACSCOC regional accreditation, Drake State's technical programs gained the transfer agreements and program-expansion authority that unlocked the next decade of growth — the prerequisite for everything from nursing to the Leidos complex.
The Alabama State Board of Education granted comprehensive community-college status and the new name. Drake State became the first and only institution in Alabama authorized to operate as both a traditional two-year community college and a technical trade college — offering the Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, and Associate in Applied Science alongside its certificates.
In partnership with NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project, Drake State won roughly $1.2 million as one of six national recipients of NASA's Inclusion Across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science award. The money expanded the Frontiers Research Program for STEM workforce development and funds free STEM programs for local middle and high school students.
Drake State and Huntsville Hospital partnered to launch a licensed practical nursing program, and Building 100 became the permanent home of the college's nursing programs — a direct response to North Alabama's healthcare labor shortage.
One of the cornerstone projects of the Alabama Community College System's ASPIRE 2030 plan, funded through the statewide 2020 education bond issue. The 50,000-square-foot complex on Meridian Street houses precision machining, welding, additive manufacturing, mechatronics, electrical technology, and engineering design — labs, classrooms, and offices for the aerospace and advanced-manufacturing industries. In November 2024 Leidos committed $1.75 million to the college's advanced-manufacturing and IT programs, apprenticeships, scholarships, and faculty development, and the new building was named the Leidos Advanced Training Complex in recognition.
The ribbon-cutting drew Drake State president Dr. Patricia Sims, Leidos CEO Tom Bell, ACCS chancellor Jimmy Baker, and state and local officials. The complex opened as the home of a new Huntsville Tech FAME (Federation of Advanced Manufacturing Education) cohort — the apprenticeship-style Toyota-created program Drake State launched in 2024 with sponsors including Blue Origin, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, Toyota Alabama, Bruderer, Kohler, Plasma Processes, and Runergy.
Drake State became a Leidos subcontractor supporting NASA under the AEGIS (Advanced Enterprise Global IT Solutions) contract, providing IT solutions and end-user services — a small HBCU doing direct mission IT work for the space agency.
The largely mid-century-modern campus has won Huntsville's Beautification Award on several occasions, and the college's landscaped grounds remain one of its quiet points of pride.
Athletics is brand new: after joining the NJCAA and ACCC in November 2024, the college began recruiting an athletics director and its first student-athletes — no coaches of record yet. Workforce leadership includes Dean of Workforce Development Doug Brazier (quoted on the 2025 Work Ready welding program). Public-relations directors Mark B. Moore and later Daniel Owen/Elijah Baker document the Sims-era news run.
President since November 2018; former dean of the College of Education at Athens State and 12-year Drake State administrator
Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Grants, and Research / Title III Administrator; 19+ years at Drake State
Dean of Students; presented the Glenn Family Emergency Fund honorees at the 2026 commencement-week luncheon
Drake State feels like a working trade campus, not a residential college: about two-thirds of students attend part-time, most are Huntsville-area adults training for a specific job. The signature student moments are the annual Mr. and Ms. Drake State pageant, the automotive program's annual car show, the Veterans Day program in the Building 300 Cafetorium (retired Maj. Gen. Patrick W. Burden keynoted in 2022), and the Wrapped in Love blanket drive for chemo patients at Clearview Cancer Institute, running since 2021. The 5th Annual Jazz in the City is a featured campus event. Fall 2020 enrollment was 825 students (31% full-time, 69% part-time; 62% Black); the college is small enough that the president knows the FAME cohorts by name.