Ivory V. Nelson

Ivory V. Nelson (born June 11, 1934) is an American chemist, educator, and academic administrator who served as president of Central Washington University from 1992 to 1999 and president of Lincoln University of Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2011.

Life and career Nelson was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Shreveport in 1951, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he served three years. He graduated magna cum laude from Grambling State University in 1959, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and secondary education. He went on to receive a PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Kansas in 1963. He was the first Grambling alumnus to go on to earn a PhD, and the first African American to earn a PhD in chemistry from the University of Kansas. He subsequently became a professor of chemistry at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black land-grant university located in Prairie View, Texas. Nelson retired a few months later. He revitalized the faltering historically black university. During his tenure, Lincoln University increased student enrollment, paid off its $15 million debt, eliminated operating deficits, and secured $325 million in public and private funding for the construction and renovation of campus infrastructure. The Ivory V. Nelson Science Center, which opened in the fall of 2009 on Lincoln's campus, was named in his honor. The building houses Lincoln's mathematics, computer science, biology, chemistry, and physics departments.

In 2017, Nelson came out of retirement to serve as interim provost of Jackson State University.