Nolen M. Ellison is a former All-Big 8 basketball player and pioneering community college educator and administrator.
Ellison’s teammate Jay Roberts hit the game winner with two seconds left in the fourth overtime.
[8][9][10] During his tenure at Sumner, Ellison was the first African-American elected to the Kansas City Junior College Board of Trustees.
While serving in the role of a trustee, Ellison met a representative of the Kellogg Foundation who convinced him that he could become a community college president.
[13] In the fall of 1971, Ellison was hired as assistant to the chancellor at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri, for the 1971-1972 academic year.
In 1974, Ellison was hired to be the second President and CEO in the history of the Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, OH.
At Cuyahoga Community College, Ellison was known as an educational innovator that pushed for the installation of computers on the campus.
[19] In June 1992, Ellison was hired at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as the Endowed Chair - Missouri Schutte Professor of Urban Affairs in the Henry W. Bloch School of Management.
[23] In 1983, Ellison was awarded a distinguished service citation by the University of Kansas Alumni Association during its commencement exercises on May 14–15, 1983.