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- Category: Campus News
Lincoln University President Ivory V. Nelson, who has achieved a national reputation for his distinguished leadership in higher education, including as president of Lincoln – America's first Historically Black University – will be honored at a gala reception at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Wednesday, February 20, 2002.
The reception, which will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Museum, is being hosted by The Philadelphia Tribune to celebrate the area's most influential Africans Americans and African American leaders of the past year.
"I am very honored and, of course, very pleased that The Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest, continuously published, owned and operated newspaper by African Americans, is honoring me," President Nelson said. "In honoring me this prestigious newspaper is also honoring Lincoln University and its legacy of excellence."
President Ivory V. Nelson, Ph.D., who has achieved a national reputation for his distinguished leadership in higher education, became the twelfth president of Lincoln University on August 15, 1999. Before coming to Lincoln, he had served as the president of Central Washington University (CWU) for more than seven years. He was formally inaugurated as Lincoln's president on April 14, 2000. A trained chemist, President Nelson is listed among the world's top scientists.
Under President Nelson's leadership, Lincoln University – America's first Historically Black University – is being restored as the institution of choice for students seeking a world-class higher education. President Nelson has a record of active community and professional involvement throughout his 30-plus years in higher education. He is a member of the Oxford (Pa.) Mainstreet, Inc. Board of Directors; YMCA of the Brandywine Valley Board of Directors; Regional College and University Presidents Council; and the NCAA Division III Presidents Council.
He served on the board of directors of Key Bank of Washington and was a member of the Washington State Commission on Student Learning, by gubernatorial appointment. He also was a member of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Arts, State of Washington.
President Nelson's career in higher education includes receiving the Fulbright Lectureship, teaching graduate and undergraduate chemistry, and serving as department head, assistant dean of academic affairs, and vice president for research. President Nelson has been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Kappa Delta Phi education honor society, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Phi Sigma physics honor society. He has authored eleven technical publications in the field of analytical chemistry, a chapter in one book and a chapter in a monograph. He has secured extensive outside funding through grants and proposal writing. In addition, he has acquired significant funding from state legislatures to construct major academic facilities. His career in the corporate sector includes assignments as a research chemist for both Union Carbide and American Oil Company. President Nelson is profiled in a book entitled, Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century.
The Central Washington University Foundation honored President Nelson by establishing a $50,000 Ivory V. Nelson Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry, and the Board of Trustees of CWU passed a Resolution in August 1999 conferring on him the title of President Emeritus.
He graduated magna cum laude from Grambling State University, in Louisiana, in 1959, with a bachelor's degree in secondary education, chemistry. He immediately entered the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where he graduated with the Doctor of Philosophy degree in analytical chemistry with high departmental honors.
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University provides the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of students living in a highly technological and global society. Lincoln is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for being one of this nation's largest producers of African American graduates in the physical sciences, biological and life sciences, and computer and information sciences.
Besides its main campus in southern Chester County, Lincoln also operates the Center for Graduate and Continuing Education in Philadelphia. The University enrolls 1,871 undergraduate and graduate students.