Chancellor Charlie Nelms assumed his duties as Chancellor of North Carolina Central University August 1, 2007.

Prior to joining the NCCU family, Nelms served as vice president for Institutional Development and Student Affairs at Indiana University, which enrolls approximately 100,000 students on eight campuses. In his role as IU's vice president for Institutional Development and Student Affairs, Nelms was responsible for a combination of duties on the Bloomington campus and systemwide that spanned university planning, institutional research and effectiveness, enrollment management, student affairs, academic support services, K-12 outreach initiatives, student retention, honors programs, and diversity and equity efforts. In September 2001, TIME magazine named IU's Bloomington campus the number-one student-centered research university in the nation. Many of the programs cited by TIME were under Nelms' oversight and direction.

A native of Crawfordsville, Arkansas, Nelms majored in agronomy and chemistry at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, graduating in 1968. He later earned a master's degree in higher education and student affairs (1971) and a doctoral degree in higher education administration (1977) from Indiana University. Early in his career, he rose through the faculty and administrative ranks as associate dean for Student Development at Earlham College in Indiana (1973-1977), associate director of the Center for Human Development and Education Services at the UAPB (1977-1978), associate dean for Academic Affairs at Indiana University Northwest (1978-1984) and vice president for Student Services at Sinclair Community College in Ohio (1984- 1987).

In 1987, Nelms began a seven-year tenure as chancellor of Indiana University East, a commuter campus serving east-central Indiana. During his tenure there, the campus was the fastest-growing college in the State of Indiana. In 1994, Nelms was named chancellor of the University of Michigan at Flint (UMF), an urban campus that enrolls over 6,500 students and offers a full spectrum of undergraduate and master's degree programs. Before being recruited to Indiana University in 1998, he resolved a significant campus budget deficit, reversed a four-year enrollment decline, and secured more than $75 million in private gifts to UMF.

A former American Council on Education Fellow and Ford Fellow, Nelms holds honorary degrees from Earlham College and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Over the course of his career, he has received numerous awards for his contributions to education and service to students, including the Benjamin Hooks Award for Meritorious Achievement from the Gary (IN) branch of the NAACP, the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from Indiana University, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, the President's Medal from the University of Michigan, and the State of Indiana's Sagamore of the Wabash--the highest civilian award bestowed by the governor.

Nelms is married to Jeanetta Sherrod Nelms. They have one son, Rashad, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School who serves as a policy officer with the United Nations World Food Programme.