Grant Lovell and Bethel
AME Churches

Dr. Nathan A. Stephens is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Illinois State University. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Social Work are from Columbia College and the University of Missouri (Mizzou) respectively. He graduated in December 2021 with his Ph.D. at Mizzou.

At ISU Dr. Stephens teaches Social Justice with Diverse Populations, Generalist Practice III: Social Work with Groups, and Social Work with Diverse Groups. As a believer in the power of education to change lives, Dr. Stephens created and taught the course Social Justice in Social Work to incarcerated students residing in the Danville Correctional Center in the Spring of 2020. His inspiration for the course stemmed from his experience of being incarcerated in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for over 5 years and the Missouri Department of Corrections for almost a year before being released on parole.

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He credits his grandmother Nettie Jordan and his Aunts Peyton Jordan and Karen Jordan-Ware for always praying for him and staying in contact with him through the years. It was those prayers that led him to pick up his bible for the first time in the Tulsa County Jail facing 25 to life. He didn’t pray to be released, he prayed to be free from the mental and emotional bondage that led him to jail in the first place. After accepting Christ, his life began to change for the better.

After his release, he worked with youth for the City of Columbia (MO) Parks and Recreation Department under the mentorship of Civil Rights icon Wynna Faye Elbert. He also met and became a student of Columbia’s first Black woman City Councilwoman Almeta Crayton who taught him to always trace the money. Soon he accepted a job as the Director of the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center at Mizzou. There he began his Ph.D. studies and created a program to support Black men on the campus. This began his 15-year career in Multicultural Affairs with stints at Mizzou, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the Fall of 2020, Dr. Stephens began teaching full-time as a tenure track Assistant Professor at Illinois State University. His goal is to use his experiences and knowledge to shape the next generation of social workers.

Finally, as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Dr. Stephens is inspired by Alpha Jewel Eugene Kinckle Jones, an innovative social worker that worked extensively to improve the social conditions for Black people. Dr. Stephens believes strongly Alpha Phi Alpha’s motto, “first of all, servants of all, we shall transcend all.”  

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