The ISAA Planning Committe is pleased to announce our keynote speakers for the 2019 conference.

Tom Morris - Plenary Keynote

For a large part of Tom’s life, he took for granted what a healthy strong body and mind plays into your everyday life. Growing up as an athlete and being surrounded by sport led Tom to living a physically active and competitive lifestyle. Tom has raced in numerous cycling races, 12/24/36/72-hour adventure races, and triathlons of all distances.

Tom’s motivation was not only pushing athletes to their highest physical and mental potential but pushing himself as well. After suffering a spinal cord injury in May of 2012, he went from being on top of the world both mentally and physically to being what he refers to as “Zeroed Out”. Tom went from racing some of the toughest races on earth to not being able to push a wheel chair more than 5 ft. This life changing event made him realize how fortunate we are to wake up each and every day. To have the ability to live life without barriers. To have the option to achieve any goal that we want.

Tom works to encourage everyone to take advantage of every second. Don’t set goals that will start in a week. Start right now! It’s your time to make today better then yesterday. And hopefully if your fortunate enough to have tomorrow you make that day better than the last. If you live by this rule and just get a little better each and every day the possibilities are endless of what you can achieve.

One of Tom’s biggest passions in life is to help others achieve their own goals. He uses his energy, passion for life and his own personal story with the hope that it can to show others that anything in life is attainable, if you just start, and never ever give up.

Charlie Nelms, Ed.D.

Charlie Nelms is a nationally recognized leader in higher education, a compelling storyteller, and a dedicated activist. One of eleven children born to subsistence farmers in the Arkansas Delta, Charlie experienced first-hand the pain of poverty and the sting of racism and legalized segregation: American style apartheid. He did not merely read about “Colored Only” waiting rooms, water fountains, and restrooms; he used them. While growing up in the Delta, Charlie chopped and picked cotton from sunup to sundown. He attended school only after the crop was laid-by or harvested, for never more than five months of the year. Everything in his all-black school was previously used by white children, except the chalk.

Charlie obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a historically Black College and University (HBCU). He earned his master’s and doctorate from Indiana University, with which he has nearly half a century of affiliation. Charlie is the first African American to be appointed chancellor of an IU campus and vice president of the University. In 2019, IU awarded him an honorary doctorate, and he is also the recipient of its highest honors: The President’s Medal for Excellence, the Distinguished Alumni Service Award, and the Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion for Distinguished Achievement. Charlie is Professor Emeritus at IU. He holds honorary degrees from Earlham College and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Charlie’s eminent career includes serving as chancellor at Indiana University East, the University of Michigan-Flint, and North Carolina Central University (NCCU). During his tenure as chancellor of NCCU, U.S. News & World Report ranked it as one of the best public HBCUs in the nation for three consecutive years. Charlie has received numerous national accolades for his higher education leadership, including prestigious fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the American Council on Education. In addition, he has been widely recognized for tackling issues beyond academia in our communities-at-large. In 2012, President Obama honored him with the MLK Drum Major for Service Award for helping to address the most pressing needs in our nation.

Charlie is a highly-sought guest panelist and commentator on various radio programs and podcasts. For five years, he was a Huffington Post blogger, where he wrote wide-ranging pieces, from the political to the personal. Charlie is the author of Having My Say: Reflections of a Black Baby Boomer and Start Where You Find Yourself. His memoir, From Cotton Fields to University Leadership: All Eyes on Charlie (IU Press, 2019) will be featured during IU’s bicentennial celebrations. All proceeds will be donated to UNCF and TMCF for HBCU scholarships.

Charlie and his spouse, Jeanetta Sherrod, are philanthropists who have established scholarship endowments at UAPB, University of Michigan Flint, IU East, and NCCU. Each year, more than 30 students are assisted by their scholarships. Charlie and Jeanetta are the proud parents of a son Rashad, a career employee with the United Nations World Food Programme.