John Black, who recently retired as president of East Georgia State College, has been appointed interim president of Macon State College.

Jeff Allbritten, the former president of Macon State, left that position when he was named president of Edison State College in Florida earlier this month.

Black retired from East Georgia State College, effective Dec. 31, 2011. He had served as president of the college since August 2004.

During his tenure, enrollment increased 147 percent, from 1,381 students in fall 2004 to more than 3,400 by fall 2011. While Black was president, the state Board of Regents approved state college status for East Georgia, allowing it to offer a baccalaureate degree in biology.

Before being named East Georgia’s president, Black served as a special assistant to the vice chancellor for academic and student affairs at the Board of Regents from 2003 to 2004.

He previously served as vice president for academic affairs at Dalton State College from 1999 to 2003 and vice president for academic affairs at EGC from 1994 to 1999.

Before that, he taught at Augusta College (now Augusta State University), where he was a member of the biology faculty from 1965 to 1994. Black twice served as acting chairman of the biology department.

Black, a native of Whitfield County in north Georgia, holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Mercer University and a doctorate in endocrinology from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.