Dr. Donnie Nero

2000-2011

Donnie L. Nero, the fifteenth president of Connors State College (name of college officially changed by the Oklahoma Legislature in 2002) is the first African-American president of a non-historically black institution in Oklahoma. He began his career teaching in Sapulpa Public Schools then moved through the ranks at Tulsa Community College to become provost of the TCC Southeast Campus before becoming CSC’s president.

In 2002, Dr. Nero was named the Distinguished Alumnus at East Central University and in 2010, he founded the Oklahoma African-American Educators Hall of Fame to remember the contributions of Oklahoma’s black educators in the era of segregation.

Dr. Nero was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame and in the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Oklahoma Association of Community Colleges Hall of Fame in 2012.