Taren Nance

Taren Nance died on October 9, 2026, at the age of 41. News of his death was shared with Urbana school district staff in Illinois by email on a Friday, with colleagues asked to keep his wife, Jeniece, who works as the district's family liaison, in their thoughts.

Nance had not worked for Urbana schools since 2023, when the district declined to renew his contract as high school principal. At the time of his death he was serving as director of the Office of Campus Culture at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, a role focused on diversity, inclusion and belonging on campus.

A cause of death has not been made public, and as of this writing funeral arrangements had not been finalized.

Tributes followed from both of the institutions where Nance had worked. Karla Carney-Hall, vice president of student affairs and dean of students at Illinois Wesleyan, said in a statement that Nance was a valuable, student centered educator who championed belonging and inclusion throughout the university community, and that he would be deeply missed by students, faculty and staff. Local news outlets in Champaign-Urbana, where Nance had been a familiar and colorful presence at Urbana High School, described him as a flamboyant former principal remembered for his energy and his community work.

Taren Nance grew up in a low-income household in Pocomoke City, a small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where he played soccer and basketball in high school. He later spoke openly about how hard his early adult years had been. He went without a driver's license for about ten years, lost two jobs because of it and spent more than four hours a day commuting between low-paid work in Ocean City and his classes.

His academic path was also uneven. Nance said he had twice been academically dismissed from college before he enrolled at Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury, Maryland, a place he later said "saved my life by allowing me to rewrite my academic history." At Wor-Wic he became an honors student and a leader in the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, serving as president of its Middle States Region. In 2012 he was named the society's international distinguished officer of the year, and in 2013 he was one of 20 members chosen from more than 1,800 applicants for a Guistwhite scholarship. He was also named to the All-Maryland Academic Team.

While still a student he researched how the lack of a driver's license held back teenagers from low-income families, and took his findings to Wor-Wic's president. The college responded by launching a publicly run driving course with a sliding scale of fees for low-income students. Nance graduated from Wor-Wic with honors in 2013, earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Wilmington University in 2014, and went on to a master's degree there, supported by a GEICO Pathway to Completion scholarship.

Nance began his career in Maryland schools, working as an elementary and special education teacher, including in Dorchester County, and then as an assistant principal. In April 2021 he was named principal of Urbana High School in Urbana, Illinois, following two principals who had each served a single year.

He quickly became one of the most recognisable figures in Champaign-Urbana education. He wore brightly coloured shirts and hats, called himself "Fresh Principal Nance" and even had business cards printed with the name. He handed out Mardi Gras beads, which he called "anti-violence beads", to students who completed tasks. After a student was killed by gun violence early in his tenure, Nance helped organise community leaders around reducing gun violence in the area.

In February 2023 the Urbana school board voted to end his term as principal after the 2022-23 school year as part of a restructuring of the high school's leadership. Students spoke at the board meeting asking that he be kept on. Nance responded publicly that he would "continue to be Fresh Principal Nance" and keep fighting for students who were underserved and underrepresented.

He then moved to Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, as director of its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, later renamed the Office of Campus Culture. In 2025 he told the student newspaper of his worries about federal changes to diversity programmes, while saying the university remained committed to the work. He held the post at the time of his death.

Nance was married to Jeniece Nance, who works as the family liaison for Urbana School District 116. He spoke often in public about the setbacks of his own youth, including his struggles in college and years without a driver's license, and used them to argue that every young person should leave school with what he called "the basic necessities in life you need to survive": a bank account, a driver's license and a voter registration.

Nance is remembered in Champaign-Urbana as a flamboyant, high-energy principal who put relationships with students first and pushed the community to confront gun violence. At Wor-Wic Community College his own research helped create a driving course for low-income students, and his story of turning around a failed start in college was held up as an example for others. Illinois Wesleyan described him as a student-centred educator who championed belonging and inclusion.