Alton B. Nelson, Jr.

Mr. Nelson holds a BA degree from UCLA in History with an emphasis on World History and World Literature. Mr. Nelson also holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University in Education. Mr. Nelson felt he had found his "calling" after volunteering for a youth summer camp in college that worked with low-income students in Los Angeles, Calif.

After graduating from UCLA, travelling in Europe, and teaching English in Madrid, Spain, Mr. Nelson came back to the U.S. determined to find a place in education. Mr. Nelson began by working for a national youth service advocacy organization in Los Angeles. In 1992, Mr. Nelson moved to the Bay Area and began working as an intern at the East Bay Conservation Corps in Oakland.

In 1993, Mr. Nelson came to The Branson School in Marin County, working as a History teacher and Co-Director of Making Waves at The Branson School. In his six years there, Mr. Nelson played multiple roles including History Department Chair, JV boys basketball and JV girls volleyball coach, and a member of the admissions committee.

In 1999, Mr. Nelson followed his heart and soon-to-be wife to Evanston, Ill. where he worked as a Human Resource Manager at Northwestern University. In 2001, Mr. Nelson fulfilled an education goal by earning his Masters degree at Harvard University. He briefly settled back in Chicago working at a foundation where he was in charge of funding programs that increased the number of highly qualified teachers in Chicago Public Schools.

In the summer of 2002, Mr. Nelson began a year-long residency in the KIPP School Leadership program in preparation for starting a 5^th-8^th grade middle school in Sacramento, Calif. Mr. Nelson opened the school in the summer of 2003. He founded and ran Sol Aureus College Preparatory for eight years. In that time, the school graduated five classes of students and helped them gain admission into top Sacramento public and private high schools. In the last four years he led a team of hard-working teachers to make 4-year gains of over 200 points (an average of 50 pts./year). In 2010-11, the school met the statewide goal of 800 by achieving a 65 point API gain to improve it’s schoolwide score to 836 (879 for its latino sub-group). Mr. Nelson is proud to be the founding Head of School for Making Waves Academy Upper School.