Nelvia Brady

professor of business and director of ethnic diversity

on faculty since 2003

Phone: 708.239.4876
Fax: 708.239.6457
E-mail: nelvia.brady@trnty.edu       

Education

Ph.D., Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 1980
M.S., University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 1973
B.A., University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, 1970

Professional and Personal Interests

Dr. Nelvia Brady is accustomed to being first. She was first in her high school graduating class, the first member of her family to earn a college degree, the first African American and female to serve as lead counselor of the Minneapolis Public Schools, and the first African American and female chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago.

In 2003, she became the first director of ethnic diversity at Trinity Christian College, charting a new course in her career after years of recruiting, administration, and management. Brady also teaches in the College's business department.

“I wanted to get back into hands-on teaching, and Trinity presented the perfect opportunity for me to resume teaching as well as continue in diversity development. It came at a great time in my life.”

Brady, raised in Chicago, was the senior vice president and executive search consultant at Carrington & Carrington, Ltd., placing African Americans, Hispanics, women, and other minorities in senior management and high-level positions at Fortune 500 companies. She also established recruitment strategies that focused on diversity, and she applies some of those principles at the College.

“Diversity is not the same for every organization. It can be defined as differences between and among people based on gender, age, ethnicity, customs, or physical abilities. It’s not possible to bring a generic diversity program to an institution and make it fit because it may not address the goals of that organization.”

After graduating from the University of Illinois with a sociology degree, Brady completed her master’s in guidance and counseling at the University of Wisconsin. She then spent five years in Minnesota before finishing her doctoral degree in pupil personnel administration at Michigan State University.

In 1981, she joined the Chicago Public Schools system to help implement the city’s desegregation plan. Seven years later, Brady was appointed chancellor of the largest community college district in Illinois, with more than 120,000 students spread over eight colleges. She was named a History Maker by a Chicago-based African American organization that highlights notable people and their accomplishments in black history.

Brady is the author of two published books. “This Mother's Daughter” is a collection of 20 real-life stories that explore the complexity of the daughter-mother relationship. The pearls of wisdom in “This Mother's Daughter” inspired her to write “300+ Pearls of Wisdom” as a vehicle for sharing these “Mommalies” with daughters everywhere. For two years she wrote a weekly newspaper column for Minneapolis-based Insight News and a quarterly column for Bridges magazine, a publication of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management.

Brady, who is married to Jack Hampton, enjoys cooking and professes to make “a mean chili.” Now a Palos Heights resident, she is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Courses Taught

• Human Resource Management
• Organizational Behavior
• Professional Communications

Professional Society Membership

• Illinois Affirmative Action Officers Association
• Illinois Committee on Black Concerns in Higher Education
• International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education
• Society of Human Resource Management

Papers Published and/or Presented

• Keynote Speaker, Women Of Nations Summit, Office Of Race Relations, Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, April 27-28, 2007.
  
  
• 2006 Athena International Conference, Women’s Leadership Summit, Diversity Corporate Style: Women of Color in Leadership and Management.
  
  
• “When Public Housing was Paradise: Building Community in Chicago” by J.S. Fuerst features aspects of Dr. Nelvia Brady’s personal experience in public housing. 2005.

• “College Faith 3: 150 Christian Leaders and Educators Share Faith Stories from Their College Days,” edited by Ronald Alan Knott, features aspects of Dr. Nelvia Brady’s college days. 2006.
  
  
• “300+ Pearls of Wisdom.” Self-published. 2002.
  
  
• From 2000-2002. Dr. Nelvia Brady wrote a weekly newspaper column for Minneapolis-based, Insight News and a quarterly column for Bridges Magazine, a publication of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management.
  
  
• “This Mother’s Daughter.” St. Martin’s Press, New York, New York. 1999