This fall Wilkinson College welcomed Prexy Nesbitt back to campus as a Presidential Fellow in Peace Studies.

Born on Chicago’s West Side, “Prexy” (Rozell W.) Nesbitt has spent more than five
decades as an educator, activist, and speaker on Africa, foreign policy, and
racism. Prexy’s career has also included extensive consulting and training on class,
race, multiculturalism and diversity. A teacher and lecturer for many years all over
the United States, he additionally has worked as a “red cap,” social worker, union organizer,
special assistant to Chicago’s Mayor, the late Harold Washington, and a senior
program officer with the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago.

During this incredible career Prexy met Chapman University’s esteemed Don Will, the two of whom would become lifelong friends and collaborators. Through Don, who was paramount in the founding of the department Prexy now joins, the two organized Prexy’s first visits to Chapman University in the early 1980s as a part of the Delp-Wilkinson Peace Lecture Series.

Over thirty years later, in the summer of 2019, Prexy (with the help of three dedicated students), packed up a moving truck’s worth of belongings to make the long road trip from Chicago to the city of Orange.

Prexy is teaching two courses in the Department of Peace Studies: Race & Change in South Africa and Model United Nations, the later of which will be traveling to New York in the spring to participate in the National Model United Nations Conference which Chapman has been participating in since 1997.

Next week, the Social Justice Initiative of University of Illinois at Chicago, will be holding a symposium and reception in honor of Prexy Nesbitt for his exemplary career of service and activism. Jesús García, U.S. Representative for Illinois’s 4th district, and James Thindwa, community organizer and head of Chicago Jobs with Justice, are just two of the almost 20 prominent community members, activists, and scholars expected to speak.

Prexy is a beloved educator, international delegation coordinator, and social justice leader whose world travels have touched and inspired hundreds of students and activists. Wilkinson College is truly honored.

Welcome back, Prexy!