WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (AP) — The president of a Georgia technical college has been elected to chair a college accrediting agency.

Central Georgia Technical College President Ivan H. Allen was elected to chair the board of trustees of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

Allen is the first Georgian to chair the group since 1999 and the first African-American president of a two-year college to ever chair SACS.

Allen has been a SACS trustee since 2017 and has been vice chair of the group’s executive council since 2019.

He has led Central Georgia Technical College since the combined institution was created by merger of Middle Georgia Technical College and the former Central Georgia Technical College in 2013.

The Macon native became president of Middle Georgia Tech in 2005. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, a master’s degree from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville and a doctorate from Nova Southeastern University.

SACS accredits more than 750 colleges in 11 southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.

Accreditation is meant to be a guarantee of basic quality of an institution and colleges must be accredited in order to offer federal financial aid.