Troutman, Porter

Porter Troutman was born and raised in Newellton, a small farming community in Louisiana. He went to school to Ruth Wood Elementary School and graduated from a high school in St. Joseph, Louisiana. He then attended Southern University from 1961 to 1965 and earned his Bachelor's Degree. His father held a multitude of jobs to support the family and was highly involved in the Civil Rights movement.

Troutman was encouraged by his father to stay in school and work within the system rather than get involved in the civil rights 1960s demonstrations. However, he was a witness to the Ku Klux Klan threatening his father, which caused the family to leave town overnight. In college, Troutman engaged in protests and marched with fellow students like H. Rap Brown. After graduation, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Troutman briefly left Las Vegas to Chicago, Illinois for a teaching job. He came back to Las Vegas a year later due to the poor conditions in the Chicago school districts, then went to Northern Arizona University (NAU) and got his master's degree in elementary education. He followed that with an Education Specialist certification at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

Dr. Troutman taught at the university for five years and then took the opportunity to become a team leader for Teacher Corps. After five weeks, he was appointed Associate Director for Teacher Corps, and eventually ended up as Director. During the ten years he worked for Teacher Corps, he also became one of the first African-Americans to earn a doctorate in Education Administration at NAU.

Dr. Troutman taught two or three classes per semester at UNLV. He designed four classes that specifically address multicultural issues, target teachers' knowledge base, give them strategies for dealing with students, and identify resources and materials for them to use in the classroom.