Edgecombe Technical Institute began as an extension unit of Wilson County Technical Institute and, in 1967, came under complete Edgecombe County administration, thus dissolving the relationship with Wilson County Technical Institute.
The Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners and the Boards of Education of Tarboro and Edgecombe County appointed a Board of Trustees. The first Board of Trustees comprised eight members:
- Randolph D. Armstrong
- Guy E. Barnes
- Zebulon E. Brinson
- Reginald M. Fountain
- Thomas B. Grainger
- Jonathan F. Jack Havens
- David Phillips
- Dr. Moses A. Ray
The final step to full institutional independence came in the spring of 1971 when the General Assembly made all technical institutes of North Carolina independent of any local boards of education and granted government by a twelve-member Board of Trustees. The Governor of North Carolina appointed four trustee members in July 1971, an action which completed the twelve-member Board.
The North Carolina General Assembly has since designated a thirteenth nonvoting member, the president of the Student Government Association.
Since the formation of the 蹤獲弝け Board of Trustees, fifty-five individuals have served as trustees. A number of these have served for twenty years or more:
- Guy E. Barnes, 1968 1992 (24 years)
- Jonathan K. Felton, 1970 2013 (43 years)
- Thomas S. Fleming, 1971 2007 (36 years)
- James H. Long, 1979 2016 (37 years)
- Jessie M. Jones, 1981 2018 (37 years)
- James I. Taylor, 1983 2019 (36 years)
- Jean M. Bailey, 1992 2015 (23 years)
- Helen W. Collins, 1993 2015 (22 years)
- Gladys C. Shelton, 1994 2014 (20 years)
- Jerry W. Spruell, 1994 1998, 2000 Present (27 years and counting)
- Bernice M. Pitt, 1996 2016 (20 years)
- Gloria Wiggins-Hicks, 1997 Present (26 years and counting)