Dr. Rachel Noel (1918 – 2008) was an educator and activist who was a leader in the movement to desegregate the public schools of Denver, Colorado in the 1960s and 1970s. Later, Dr. Noel became director of the Black Studies Department at Metropolitan State College in Denver and was the first African American on the Board of Regents of the University of Colorado. A native of Virginia, Noel was an honored elder in Denver’s Shorter African Methodist Episcopal church. The Rachel B. Noel Middle School was established in August 2002 in the Denver Public School District in her honor.