CEO on the move
Larry Johnson, Jr., will become the seventh president of Bronx Community College, effective July 14. He is currently president of Guttman Community College, a position he has held for four years.
During his tenure as Guttman’s second president, the New York City college saw historic enrollment growth and has expanded its academic offerings, including new certificate and associate degree programs in cybersecurity and secondary education, along with two fully online programs in liberal arts and health information technology, according to a release. The college also established a Career Innovation Hub to partner with community organizations in developing career opportunities for students from underserved communities.
Under Johnson’s leadership, Guttman also secured more than $5 million in grant funding to enhance student support services, develop new career pathways and strengthen its institutional infrastructure.
Previously, Johnson was president of Phoenix College, where he was the first African American to head the Arizona college in 2018. He has held full-time faculty appointments and served in academic leadership positions at community colleges in Missouri, Georgia and Florida. Johnson began his career at Tallahassee Community College in Florida, where he taught developmental English and reading. He later taught at Georgia Piedmont Technical College and then Broward College (Florida), where he was associate dean for English and journalism, and championed innovative strategies that increased student success, particularly for men of color. He then served as provost and chief academic officer at St. Louis Community College’s Forest Park campus.
Johnson also contributes his time to several prominent organizations. He has served on several commissions of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), and in July he will become an AACC board member. Earlier this year, Johnson was named among PoliticsNY’s and amNY Metro’s 2025 Black Power Players in New York for “driving positive change and making a lasting impact across the city and state.”
Obituary
Nolen Ellison, who for 17 years led Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) during its foundational years, passed away on June 12. He was 83.
Ellison was a visionary leader who served as the second president of Tri-C, helping to shape its identity during its early years. He was at the helm from 1974 to 1991.
Tri-C officials noted several major advancements championed by Ellison continue to benefit the college’s students, including the Unified Technologies Center (now the Manufacturing Technology Center), the integration of computing across the college and the establishment of community partnerships. Ellison also founded the renowned Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, which had its inaugural concert in 1980.
In a 2023 Tri-C newsletter article on the college’s 60-year history, Ellison and the college’s current and previous presidents reflected on its mission and impact on the community.
“It’s encouraging that Ohio’s first community college has continued to evolve, grow and prosper during its existence. Tri-C is a critical part of many personal histories and a contributor to the economic well-being of our region,” Ellison said.
Prior to embarking on a career in higher education, Ellison was a nationally known All-American point guard for the University of Kansas (KU) basketball team. He turned down a professional athletic career to pursue a lifelong mission in education and leadership.
“I wanted more,” Ellison said in 2016 in a sports publication. “I believed I could be more. I look at the athletes today and I think that many of them are selling themselves short. I try to exemplify the other road that you can take.”
Ellison got his start in higher education in 1967 when he became the first African American member of the board of trustees of what is now Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC). In 1972, he became president of Seattle Community College at the age of 31. He took the helm at Tri-C in 1974.
In 1981, Ellison received a Phi Delta Kappa award recognizing his outstanding educational leadership and the Freedom Award from the NAACP. He was identified by the U.S. departments of Education and Justice as an educational expert dealing with broad urban educational issues, as well as with those relating to desegregation of American higher education.
Ellison also served for three years as a member of the President’s National Advisory Committee on Higher Education and Black Colleges and Universities. In 1982, he was appointed executive director of the Putting America Back to Work Task Force, a national human resources development project of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (which today is the American Association of Community Colleges).
After finishing his tenure at Tri-C in 1991, Ellison returned to his hometown Kansas City and served as a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for nine years. He retired in 2001. He later served a second term on the KCKCC board. In 2016, he and his wife, Carole, formed the Ellison Family Foundation to extend their support for education and community. The foundation has made commitments to Seattle Community College, Cuyahoga Community College and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
