MCC Trustee Ellen Martin joins Hall of Fame of Missouri Community College Association

---

Ellen Martin, a member of Metropolitan Community College’s Board of Trustees, was honored Nov. 13 with induction into the Missouri Community College Association Hall of Fame.

At an awards dinner at MCCA’s annual convention, this year in St. Charles, Martin was lauded “for her lifelong commitment to teaching, governance and advocacy” and called “profoundly deserving” of Hall of Fame induction.

MCCA represents Missouri’s 12 community colleges and provides advocacy, education, information and networking to its member institutions.

Martin has served as MCC’s Subdistrict 5 trustee since being elected to a two-year unexpired term in 2018 and subsequently elected to a standard six-year term in 2020. She has been the six-member Board of Trustees’ vice president since 2024.

She is also a retired longtime MCC faculty member and administrator, starting out as a psychology instructor at the MCC-Longview campus in August 1971.

Over the years Martin served as Academic (Faculty) Senate president (1978-79), director of research and planning (starting in 1981), and, for nine years, associate vice chancellor/assistant to the chancellor.

She took early retirement in 2000, which allowed her to work part time for 10 more years. Her primary assignment was “the review, modification and reduction of MCC’s policies, regulations and procedures.”

The activities that gave her “the greatest pleasure during my service to MCC,” Martin wrote, “were, of course, teaching and learning with students, the support of professional development initiatives, and, as a trustee, the opportunity to engage in strategic planning for the continued excellence of MCC.”

Her husband, Robert “Bob” Martin, who died in 2017, holds the distinction of being the longest-serving Board of Trustees member (41 years) in MCC history. The Campus Center at MCC-Longview bears his name.

Ellen Martin was one of two inductees into the MCCA Hall of Fame this year.

Also at the Recognition and Excellence Awards dinner, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City and its president and CEO, DeAngela Burns-Wallace, nominated by MCC, were honored with one of five Community College Partner Awards.

Metropolitan Community College, founded in 1915, was Missouri’s first community college and is the oldest public institution of higher learning in Kansas City, Missouri.