Nona Burney had a passion for education. She was the first in her family to attend college and went on to earn a J.D., master’s degree, and Ph.D. Burney taught social studies and black history at Cleveland’s Collinwood High School during the 1970s, when Cleveland was struggling with busing and other issues of school integration. Shortly after, she helped start Cleveland’s Martin Luther King Law and Public Service Magnet High School, eventually serving as principal. She became a professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, where she was named director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and helped to establish service learning as a key feature of a Roosevelt education. She worked diligently to prevent the closure of neighborhood schools in Chicago.