Alvin Schexnider

Alvin J. Schexnider is the former president of Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Virginia. He is also president of Schexnider & Associates, LLC, a management consulting firm based in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Before retiring in April 2007, he was executive vice president of Norfolk State University where he also served as acting president and interim president.  A former chancellor of Winston-Salem State University, he has held faculty and administrative positions at Southern University, Syracuse University, The Federal Executive Institute, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Wake Forest University.   

Schexnider earned a BA degree in political science at Grambling State University.  He received the MA and PhD in political science from Northwestern University, where he held Norman Wait Harris, Ford Foundation, and Woodrow Wilson fellowships. 

He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the J. Sergeant Reynolds Award for Outstanding Service in Public Administration, the Grambling State University Distinguished Alumni Award, the Alpha Phi Alpha Distinguished Educator of the Year Award, and he was inducted into the Grambling State University Hall of Fame.

Schexnider is a coauthor of Blacks and the Military (Brookings Institution), and he has written extensively on public management and higher education. He formerly served on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review and the Journal of Power and Ethics.  He was featured in two documentaries regarding construction of the Alaska Canada Highway, one produced for American Legacy in 2003 and another produced for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) American Experience Series in 2005.

Currently he serves on the boards of trustees of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and of Excelsior College (New York), as chairman of the Innovation Integration Board of South Carolina, on the board of governors of the Town Point Club, and on the boards of the United Way of South Hampton Roads, the Urban League of Hampton Roads, and Smart Beginnings of South Hampton Roads.  He is also a former trustee of Marketwatch Funds and Wachovia Funds and Municipal Funds.