Although he tends to downplay his prominence, there is no question that Dr. Curtis L. Ivery has become somewhat of a celebrity in Detroit, using his high-profile status as the chancellor of the Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD) to champion opportunity and educational equity for the 70,000 students enrolled at the multi-campus college.
And in doing so, Ivery — who is one of the longest serving community college leaders in the nation — has dramatically helped raise the visibility of a struggling city on the verge of a second renaissance.
“Dr. Ivery has a serious commitment to helping the low-income population that universities can’t retain or prefer not to admit,” says the Reverend Charles Williams II, a community leader and senior pastor of Detroit’s Historic King Solomon Baptist Church. “He has stood firm on the premise that everyone should have access to an educational opportunity that will launch them into the middle class. To some it’s a first chance and others it’s a second chance, but to everyone it’s a life-changing opportunity.”
If you crisscross the region and indeed the country, you’ll hear similar accolades for Ivery, who has been at the helm of WCCCD for 25 years and has been the institution’s most vocal cheerleader. He’s credited with transforming the six-campus institution — stretching across 36 cities and townships and more than 500 square miles — into a national model lauded for its high enrollment and impressive completion rates. In addition, his scholarly research on urban and minority issues — specifically those that impact African American males — has won him widespread recognition and a litany of awards and honors across the years.
Ivery is self-effacing when it comes to talking about himself, but his body of work speaks for itself. In addition to serving on numerous boards including chairing the Wayne County Airport Authority, he is the author of a number of books including Reclaiming Integration and the Language of Race in the Post-Racial Era; America’s Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politics: Education, Incarceration, Segregation and the Future of U.S. Multiracial Democracy; and Black Fatherhood: Reclaiming Our Legacy, which he co-authored with his son Marcus, along with a series of children’s books he co-authored with his daughter Angela.
Nearly two decades ago, Ivery and his wife Ola formed the Curtis and Ola Ivery Literacy Foundation to support educational scholarships and early childhood development programs such as The Bookworm Club and the Children’s Reading Carnival, which impact thousands of children across Wayne County each year. Proceeds from all of Ivery’s books go to the foundation.
A self-professed workaholic who keeps a notepad on the nightstand to jot down ideas, much to the dismay of his wife, Ivery isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Sitting at his office desk headquartered in a building that now bears his name, he rattles off a number of new initiatives that he’s actively working on, including securing robots for his students to work with. There’s more work to be done, he says with a broad smile, and those who know him say he’s just the person to get things done.
