The HistoryMakers

Elnora D. Daniel was born in Oxford, North Carolina, on November 19, 1941, the eldest daughter of a butcher and a mechanic. After graduating from high school in 1959, Daniel went to North Carolina A&T University, earning her B.S. in 1964. Following her graduation, she relocated to New York and began attending Columbia University, where she earned an M.Ed. in 1968. Daniel continued her studies at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1972 before returning to Columbia for her Ed.D. in 1975.

Daniel began her career working as a nurse at the New York Medical Center following her graduation from North Carolina A&T. Once she returned to school, Daniel worked as a teaching assistant at Columbia until 1976. From 1980 to 1991, Daniel served as a professor and as dean of the School of Nursing at Hampton University. She became the administrator for the Interdisciplinary Nursing Center for Health and Wellness at Hampton in 1985. In 1991, Daniel was promoted to vice president for academic affairs, and from 1995 to 1998, she held the post of executive vice president and provost of the university.

On August 1, 1998, Daniel was appointed president of Chicago State University. Since assuming the presidency, the University has constructed a number of new facilities. She has reconstituted the Chicago State University Foundation and contributions to the Foundation have increased significantly. Additionally, her fundraising efforts have more than doubled the size of the CSU endowment.

Daniel's international reputation is reflected in her appointment by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to serve as a consultant in the area of regulatory health care reform to Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. Additionally, she served as a consultant for Operation Smile International in Liberia, Kenya and Ghana. Her service efforts in the Tidewater Region in Virginia culminated in the purchase of a Mobile Health Unit providing access to underserved urban and rural populations. In May 2000, Daniel was invited by Illinois Governor George Ryan to represent the higher education community as a member of the trade mission that inaugurated the Illinois Trade Commission in South Africa.

Daniel sits on myriad local and national boards and philanthropic foundations. These include the board of directors for the National association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the Illinois Commission on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the board of directors for the Beverly Bank & Trust Company. Daniel is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and in 2003, Miller Brewing Company recognized her on the 2003 Gallery of Greats Calendar, honoring "academic dream weavers." She has published extensively and holds numerous academic and civic awards.

Daniel holds the rank of Colonel (retired) in the United States Army Reserve. She and her husband, Herman, live in Chicago. They have one child.

Daniel was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 21, 2003.