Michael Sorrell – New Urban College Model – TEDxSMU 2013
Michael J. Sorrell is the 34th President of Paul Quinn College. Under his leadership, Paul Quinn is experiencing one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of higher education and is regularly mentioned nationally as one of the most innovative schools in America. Among the school’s numerous accomplishments during his tenure have been: winning the “2011 HBCU of the Year” and the “2012 HBCU Student Government Association of the Year”; being named a finalist for the President’s Higher Education Community Service Award; transforming the unused football field into the “WE over Me Farm”; and securing the largest single donor gifts in the school’s history.
Michael received his J.D. and M.A. in Public Policy from Duke University and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. He was a recipient of the Sloan Foundation Graduate Fellowship, which funded his studies at both Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (as a graduate fellow) and Duke University. He graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Government.
Michael has been recognized as the 2012 HBCU Male President of the Year and as a member of the Root 100. He has received the Excellence in Education Distinguished Alumni Award from St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, Illinois; the A. Kenneth Pye Award for Excellence in Education from Duke University’s School of Law; and the TRACS Leadership Award. He is a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and serves on the boards of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, the Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) at the University of Pennsylvania, Amegy Bank, Teach for America, the North Texas Public Broadcasting Company, Inc., and the Department of Education Policy and Leadership for the Simmons School of Education at SMU.
President Sorrell is married to the former Natalie Jenkins. Natalie is an alumna of Spelman College and received her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. They have one son, Michael Augustus.