Charlene Nunley was travelling across college campuses before she was put around the golf course.
Nunley served as the president of Montgomery College, Maryland’s biggest community college, for nearly three decades.
She was honored for her commitment and hard work a few weeks ago.
“I just won an outstanding leader award from the American Association for Community Colleges,” she said. “It’s an award given to people who have had a very significant impact on the field of community colleges.”
Nunley claimed to be the only community college president to be appointed to the National Commission on the Future of Higher Education. She launched a doctoral program for community college leaders at the University of Maryland after quitting as president, and she continued to serve the community as an adjunct professor there and as a mentorship coordinator in the Aspen Institute’s Rising Presidents Fellowship program.
She received the Leadership Award as a result of her efforts.
Her journey from higher education to a career was an exciting one.
Nunley’s father, a walking mail carrier, fell off the edge of her house and fractured both of his legs between her freshman and sophomore years at Penn State University.
“I thought my college career was over,” Nunley said. “I went to see the dean of students to tell her I wasn’t going to be able to come back, and she said, ‘I’m not going to let that happen.’”
The next thing she knew, Nunley received a scholarship and a job at the Center for the Study of Higher Education on campus.
“While I worked there, I picked up and read this book on American community colleges,” Nunley said.
As a result, she developed a love for community colleges.
“I think community colleges have more power to change people’s lives than any other form of college education,” Nunley said. “I think a lot of the people who come to community colleges wouldn’t be able to get any higher education if they weren’t there.”
Nunley earned her master’s degree in higher education after graduating from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
She went on to obtain a doctorate in public policy from George Washington University several years later.
“I couldn’t have been a community college leader without those degrees,” she said. Nunley began her career in higher education at Potomac State College, a branch campus of West Virginia University.
She then went on to Howard Community College in Maryland, where she spent the following 27 years before returning to Montgomery College.
Nunley served in a variety of jobs during her time at Montgomery.
She was the president of Montgomery College for 8 years. Her finest success while in that role, she added, was founding The Universities at Shady Grove, a new institution dedicated to providing students with transfer options so they do not have to go as far for college.
Nunley continues to work in many positions to assist students in their pursuit of higher education, devoting the majority of her time to the Aspen Institute these days. She retired in 2007 because she “loved the job too much” according to her.
“I knew if I continued the way I was, I would really make a sacrifice for my health,” she said.
Nunley’s husband had already retired, so the two of them agreed it was time for her to step down from full-time employment. When a friend migrated to The Villages, they resided on Anna Maria Island.
Fred arrived at The Villages to golf, and Nunley said she “had three places for him to see” by the time he finished.
However, they did not purchase a home during that initial visit.
During their second visit, though, they purchased one in the Village of Fernandina.
“It was just sort of that the place felt right,” Nunley said.
– Attributed Source, The Villages Daily Sun