Johnston County

Johnston County, founded on June 28, 1746, has a population of 196,708 and a total employment of 48,458 (24.6%). The county seat of the primarily rural county is Smithfield, which is about 35 minutes from Raleigh. Johnston County also includes the towns Selma, Benson, Kenly and Four Oaks.

The county’s most profitable agricultural product is hogs, and the largest product by acreage is soybeans. The type of livestock produced most by total number is meat-type chickens.

The largest manufacturer and third-largest employer is Grifols Therapeutics, which manufactures plasma-derived medicines and employs more than 1,000 people.

The county is served by Johnston Community College, one of the 10 community colleges NC State partners with in the Community College Collaboration (C3), a dual-admission program that offers an alternative path to an NC State degree for students from rural and low-income backgrounds. (Learn more about the C3 program.)

NC State is Here

Principal Education

The Johnston Principal Leadership Academy (JPLA) is part of NC State’s Northeast Educational Leadership Academy (NELA), a nationally recognized two-year program in the College of Education that seeks to boost student achievement by preparing and retaining academic leadership in high-need schools in about one-quarter of the state’s counties.

NELA is implementing a comprehensive leadership development and succession plan in the state’s high-need school districts. Each component is anchored in research-based best practices in leadership preparation and is designed to meet the specific contextualized needs of schools in North Carolina.

Through the JPLA, NC State’s College of Education has conferred Master’s of School Administration degrees upon future principals who serve Johnston County Public Schools. (Learn more about the JPLA.)

Central Crops Research Station

Located just outside Clayton and about 20 miles from NC State’s campus, the 518-acre, state-owned Central Crops Research Station hosts a wide range of plant-breeding programs that are closely monitored by NC State students, scientists and researchers.

It also hosts a weather-reporting station that feeds data to the Centennial Campus-housed State Climatology Office and the Triangle’s National Weather Service offices.

Julius B. Lee Experimental Forest

Located about 30 minutes from NC State’s main campus is Julius B. Lee Experimental Forest, a 130-acre forest that encircles two abandoned hog lagoons. Planted with loblolly pines for harvesting, the forest also includes mixed pines and hardwoods.

The forest is used extensively for undergraduate and graduate work in projects monitoring surface and subsurface movement into Lee Forest surface waters. Environmental forensics classes frequently visit the forest for field work.

The forest is not open to the public and includes only one access road. There are no onsite facilities.

Pride of the Pack

Athletic Leadership

Former NC State baseball player Ray Tanner was born in Smithfield and grew up in Benson. He played four seasons for longtime Wolfpack baseball coach Sam Esposito, and he worked three years as an assistant for Esposito. When Esposito retired in 1987, Tanner was named his successor, becoming one of the youngest head coaches in NCAA Division I baseball.

Tanner coached nine seasons at his alma mater before leaving in 1997 to become head coach at South Carolina. In 16 seasons there, he led the Gamecocks to a 738–316 record and two College World Series titles.

In more than 20 seasons as a head coach, Tanner won an Atlantic Coast Conference championship, four Southeastern Conference titles and two NCAA championships. He was named conference coach of the year four times and national coach of the year three times. In all, he coached 1,133 victories, ranking 51st among all NCAA baseball coaches.

He was named athletics director at the University of Southern California in 2012.

Self-Help Guru

Christian self-help author, business consultant and psychologist John Townsend was born in Smithfield and grew up in Wilson. He graduated with honors from NC State with a B.A. in psychology, from the Dallas Theological Seminary with a Master of Theology and from the Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

In his extensive clinical career, he has written 26 best-selling self-help books. He is also a co-founder of Minirth-Meier Clinic West, which operates treatment centers in 35 cities in the western United States. In 2015, he founded the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling at Concordia University-Irvine in California.

In 2018, Townsend launched TownsendNOW, an interactive digital platform offering coaching on personal and professional challenges.

Learn More