Cordell Henderson was born in Detroit, Michigan. After graduating from Aracoma High School, his academic studies included a Science Degree from West Virginia State College and Master's Degree in Counseling and Guidance with a minor in Geology from Marshall University. Cordell taught Biology and Science for eight years in West Virginia prior to coming to Lansing as a Counselor at Sexton High School in 1968. His career as an educator covered a span of 45 years, 37 of them in the Lansing School District. He has been a counselor, high school assistant principal, junior high school principal, high school principal, and a director of Adult Education. While completing sixty term hours in education and 18 term hours in Labor and Industrial relations at Michigan State University, Cordell was an Education Policy Fellow at George Washington University's Institute for educational leadership. Cordell has been actively involved in numerous community and professional organizations. He was a founding member of Black Men, Incorporated of Greater Lansing; a charter member of the Lansing Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and is a 30 year member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. In 2007, he received the Whitney Young Scouting Award. Cordell is a board member of the Southside Community Coalition Board of Directors and is a Life Member of the NAACP. Before retiring from the Lansing School District in 2007 he was a member of the Tri-County Career Education Planning District Council #31, The Michigan Association of Secondary Principals, the National Association of School Administrators, the North Central Accreditation Committee, and the Capital Area Michigan Works Committee. Cordell has been married to Janette Core Henderson for forty-five years. They are members of Union Missionary Baptist Church. Together they have two sons and six grandchildren.