Ivory Nelson, president of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), has been elected vice-chair of the Division III Presidents Council.

Nelson was elected by Council members at their April 29 meeting. Nelson, a member of the Council since 2001, will replace Phillip Stone of Bridgewater College (Virginia), who will become chair July 1 upon the retirement of John McCardell as president of Middlebury College.

As vice-chair, Nelson also will serve as chair of the Division III Budget Committee.

Nelson has been president at Lincoln since 1999. He previously served for more than seven years as president at Central Washington University, was acting president of Prairie View A&M State University for a year during the early 1980s, and from 1986 to 1992 served as chancellor of the Alamo Community College District in San Antonio.

His administrative experience also includes a stint as executive assistant to the chancellor of the Texas A&M University System.

Nelson is a chemist by training, and is profiled in the book Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century. He has held research positions with Union Carbide and American Oil Company, and has authored 11 technical publications in the field of analytical chemistry, a chapter in one book and a chapter in a monograph.

He earned a bachelor's degree in secondary education/chemistry in 1959 at Grambling State University and holds a doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Kansas.

Central Washington honored Nelson by establishing a $50,000 endowed graduate fellowship in his name in chemistry, and also awarded him the title of president emeritus upon his departure from the university.

He also served as a member of the Washington State Commission on Student Learning and on that state's Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Arts.