Nellie Quander

Nellie Quander (February 11, 1880 - September 24, 1961) was an incorporator and the first international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Nellie was also a teacher and helped to expand Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Family and early life
Nellie Quander was born in Washington, D.C. to John Pierson Quander and Hannah Bruce Ford Quander. Her family could retrace their lineage for three hundred years in Maryland and Virginia and are considered to be one of the longest and oldest free slave dynasties in America. Some of Nellie's relatives include her maternal grand-uncle Blanche K. Bruce, who was a Senator from Mississippi during Reconstruction and paternal descendant of Nancy Quander, one of slaves freed by the first President of the United States, George Washington in his last will and testament. In addition, Nellie was a maternal relative of West Ford, who was the mulatto son of Bushrod Washington, George Washington's nephew. From his memory, West Ford helped to provide insight to Mount Vernon Plantation's interior for the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. The association bought Mount Vernon during the 1850s with plans to historically restore the property.

During her early years, Nellie Quander enrolled in Washington, D.C.'s public schools. She graduated from Miner Normal School with honors. While enrolled at Howard University, she taught in Washington D.C.'s public school system. In June 1912, Nellie graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts history, economics, and political science.

Incorporation of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated
In the spring of 1910, Quander became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at Howard. It was during this time that her and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority President Minnie Beatrice Smith began the process of expanding the sorority to various schools. Quander was elected President in 1911 and in the fall of 1912, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority entered a new phase of development. The committee went about the process of researching schools and interested members as well as attending and communicating with fraternal organizations to establish chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha to other locations. In 1912 Myra Davis was elected president of Alpha Kappa Alpha and was approached by a student named Madree Penn about changing some of the characteristics of the organization. During a general meeting held on October 11, 1912 she brought up the suggestions of changes within the organization which would have wiped out all that had gone before. Fortunately, for Alpha Kappa Alpha, Nellie Quander was able to prevent such short sided action. She reminded the members that those changes would violate the constitution of the organization as well as the vows they had taken the year prior. While all the members got along well it was decided that a small number of members should leave and create a group that would allow such changes. This small number of women along with women from both the Howard University campus and Washington area went on to form Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. While it has been rumored that these two sororities were at odds it should be noted that the factions parted as friends and the smaller group of women even extended membership to Quander if she ever changed her mind. Quander continued to work in harmony with the former members and their new group and even arranged for the women to be able to participate in their first public act, the woman's suffrage march of 1913.

In order to remain true to her vows and their plans of expansion Quander began contacting graduate members in order to stop the current and future proposals with a plan of incorporation. As a result, Smith, Quander, Norma Boyd, Julia Evangeline Brooks, Nellie Pratt Russell and Ethel Jones Mowbray incorporated Alpha Kappa Alpha on January 29, 1913. The dissenters formed another sorority entitled, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. on January 13, 1913. With Quander's help, Alpha Kappa Alpha was nationally incorporated in Washington, D.C., as a non-profit under the name Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated on January 29th, 1913.

Presidency
After leading the initiative to incorporated the sorority, Quander served as president of Alpha Kappa Alpha. In 1918, the first Boulè at Howard, where she was officially elected president. However at the next Boulè in 1919 at Chicago, Illinois, she quit serving in the position. During her tenure, she wrote the constitution's preamble and appointed fellow members to delegate the sorority's expansion. Later, she was the first North Atlantic regional director. Nellie established the first Alpha Kappa Alpha scholarship for a senior with the highest grade point average in the School of Liberal Arts. The recipient received a ten dollar gold prize. She also helped to expand the sorority's undergraduate chapters. She assisted fellow founder Beulah Burke to establish Beta chapter in Chicago, Illinois, Gamma Chapter at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Delta chapter at the University of Kansas, and solely founded Zeta chapter at the Wilberforce University. She continued her graduate advisor involvement in Alpha chapter's affairs and was a member of the Xi Omega chapter in Washington, D.C.

Career
After graduation, Quander became an educator for the public school system in Washington, D.C for thirty years. In the public schools, she established and supported the School Safety Patrol Unit for twenty-five years. She studied at Columbia University from 1914 to 1915 to acquire her Masters of Arts. From 1916 to 1917, Quander was a special field agent for the Children's Bureau for the Department of Labor. While at her job as a field agent, she observed the social and economic structure of mentally handicapped people in New Castle County, Delaware. The study was sponsored by the local Women's Club to prepare for an establishment of a mentally handicapped institution.

Quander furthered her education by attaining a degree in social work at New York University, and studied economics for two summers at the University of Washington. Later in 1936, Quander gained a diploma at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. She also attended the International Conference on Social Work in London, England during the same year.

Civic Activities
Other activities that Quander was a part of included working in the YWCA, where she was a board member and chairman of the young women's department. Other offices and positions she held included being a board of directors member and a member of the Business Professional and Industrial Committee in the Phillis Wheatley YMCA. Nationally, she was the industrial field secretary. Politically sponsored works related to unions. She was a delegate in unions related to education and the Women's Trade Union League. Furthermore, she was Miner Community Center's executive secretary and Lincoln Temple Congregational Church's trustee board's secretary.

Death and Legacy
Nellie remained single until her death on September 24, 1961. She was close to her surviving sister, Susie, nephews and friends. In 1984 at Alpha Kappa Alpha's Diamond Jubilee Boulè, a scholarship endowment was established in Quander's honor by Esther Garland Polard, who was a trustee of Howard University. The total amount of the scholarship was $125,000, and is given to Howard University junior and senior students.