The Right Fit ‘right fi t’ FOR DC’S EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT The more information Mark C. Gordon found about Defi ance College, the more excited he became

by Kathy Punches ’96, Director of Public got stuck sitting next to the guy with the baby Public Affairs and was director of the Urban Relations and Marketing on his lap,” Gordon recalls. The travelers Habitat Project, a program that examined began chatting. “By the end of the plane ride, innovative approaches to urbanization around plane ride to Maine with his infant son she said to me, ‘I’m from a public policy the world. A turned out to be a life-changing event for school in Maine, and we are looking for a Gordon’s career to that point had Mark Gordon. dean. You should apply to be dean of our included six years on the faculty at As Defi ance College’s new president school.’” Columbia preceded by a position with the recounts the story, he was taking baby Charlie That was in 2000, and Gordon was U.S. Department of Housing and Urban to Maine so that his grandmother could see working as an associate professor on the Development. Before graduating from her newest great-grandchild. “I apologized to faculty at Columbia University. He had been Harvard Law School and working in a New the woman next to me on the plane that she teaching in the School of International and York law fi rm, he had been Assistant to the

2 Secretary for New York Governor Mario by trips all across Europe. Cuomo. But the experiences Gordon enjoyed public policy, whether that he found to be the most teaching or implementing, and he was formative began when he was intrigued with the idea of being the dean of a 13 when he started living with public policy school. He applied, and while foreign families through the he didn’t get the job, it whetted his appetite, Experiment in International and he began applying to a handful of schools Living, an established program that interested him. That led him to the that offers summer abroad position of dean at the University of Detroit experiences focusing on cultural Mercy School of Law. immersion to foster peace through “That was a great experience,” he recalls understanding, communication of his UDM tenure. He and his wife, Anne, and cooperation. and sons, Chris and Charlie, were in Detroit In the summer of 1974 he for nearly seven years. “Anne and the boys spent three weeks in intensive loved it as well, so we were only going to language training (“You don’t get leave for a really special place with a special a lot in three weeks,” he laughs.) opportunity, which is what Defi ance is.” and then lived with a family in While he didn’t offi cially take offi ce at Mexico for three weeks. The Defi ance College until July 1, Gordon had following summer, he lived for a already immersed himself in all things DC month with a Costa Rican family when board chairman Phil Mallott announced where he attended school with his the new president in mid-February. Costa Rican brother Juan Carlos. “Anne came to see Defi ance before I did, “I have four Costa Rican because I wasn’t going to seriously consider brothers, and I just visited them a any place where she wouldn’t be happy,” couple of years ago. … The baby Gordon says. “And so nobody knew that she brother is now the mayor of the was here, but she came and looked around I was getting more excited with it than with town,” says Gordon. and went through the downtown and came any other school. … The fi t was just right. It At 15, he traveled with his high school back to me and said that we could be happy felt right. German class to live with a family in there.” “I was very taken by the McMaster Germany for a month. Gordon remains close On a January day before his initial School and everything we’ve done with that, to his German and Costa Rican families and interview with the search committee in and the service learning, the engagement, was last in Germany two years ago for his Columbus, Gordon drove fi rst to Defi ance the innovative programs, the close faculty German mother’s 80th birthday. where, in a heavy snowstorm, he made an relations with students, caring about students, As a teen, Gordon also spent a summer anonymous visit to campus. “I felt like a and the real sense of community. So I just living on a dairy farm in Oregon. “I loved it. I dummy. I kept driving through the snow, and felt we had a whole bunch of passions learned how to milk cows. We’d get up every the place was deserted, but I was able to get in common. And then I was even more morning and move the irrigation pipe in the into different buildings. I was concerned that impressed by the potential.” fi elds.” security would see me and think I was trying When it was time to go to college, to break in or something, which would have GROWING UP Gordon followed the path to Columbia been a heck of an introduction.” Mark Gordon grew up far from rural University set by his parents. His father holds He met the following day with the search northwest Ohio, but his early experiences bachelor’s and law degrees from Columbia. committee. “I just had a blast talking to made great preparation for the opportunities His mother earned her bachelor’s degree them,” he says. “Anne will tell you that as I and challenges that now greet him as a from Barnard, which is part of Columbia. She was reading the background about Defi ance, college president. went on to receive an MBA and a social work I looked at a series of other schools. But as He grew up as the middle child of three degree from Columbia. I was reading about Defi ance, she could see in White Plains, N.Y., a suburb of New York Gordon’s sister, Louise, graduated from City. As a kid, he wanted to Barnard, earned a law degree and now lives be a veterinarian. He loved in Oxford, England. His younger brother, animals, witnessed by his Stephen, an emergency room pediatrician in “But as I was reading about Defi ance, family’s two dogs, three cats, New York, earned his undergraduate degree she (wife Anne) could see I was and multiple fi sh tanks. at Columbia. When Gordon was a As a college freshman, Gordon getting more excited with it than with youngster, his family began was fascinated with a course he took in any other school. … The fi t was just month-long summer trips to international politics, and so he pursued Europe, which as he recalls studies in domestic and international politics, right. It felt right. ” “was a great way to open my earning a master’s degree in international -- Mark C. Gordon, DC President eyes.” As a six-year-old, he affairs and a certifi cate from the Russian visited Greece, Turkey, Paris Institute. and Belgium, to be followed

FALL 2009  3 The Right Fit

was arguing, he’d switch sides and demolish And it was at Columbia during the 1978- future,” Gordon remembers. He went on to them. At fi rst I thought, ‘Is he just trying to 79 academic year, that Gordon as a young work on Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign in prove that he’s smarter than we are?’ but sophomore met Anne Zweibel, a freshman 1982. When Cuomo won, he invited Gordon then I realized that that was how he thought engineering student. He recalls the fl oor to work for him in Albany. For the fi rst year through public policy issues. He would argue party where they fi rst met. Each suite had to he worked in the press offi ce as an assistant all different sides until he was convinced that prepare food for the party. to the counselor (press secretary) Tim he had thought through which side was the “So, of course, the guys’ suite left it until Russert, who went on to become acclaimed strongest.” the last minute, and we ended up making NBC bureau chief and “Meet the Press” After helping Cuomo win re-election in a fruit salad using one of my suitemate’s moderator. 1986, Gordon entered Harvard Law School. chemistry beakers to mix it, so we didn’t Gordon spent nearly fi ve years in Albany “You talk to a lot of people, and they don’t touch it. Anne had made this delicious with Cuomo and found him to be an excellent like law school,” he says. “I thought it was chocolate roll. I was amazed that anybody mentor. “I was in my mid-20s and what a great. I loved thinking about all the different could have made that, and I went back for wonderful experience with great exposure, legal issues. I loved spending time discussing seconds.” seeing the way Mario Cuomo thought about them back and forth with my classmates.” Anne wrote to her mother that there was issues and would argue about different In 1990, Gordon married Anne, who one suite of young men “which was not so issues. I think it’s really because of him that had earned engineering and master’s degrees bad.” I decided to go to law school because I saw from Columbia. She had joined a fi rm as a He easily remembers their fi rst date the way he used his legal training to think structural engineer, designing and rehabbing - Feb. 9, 1979 - “Aida” at the Metropolitan through public policy issues.” bridges. “It’s always amazed me that she Opera. Gordon hadn’t planned on being an attorney but decided he wanted to get the actually knows how those bridges stand up, especially since I am a total klutz around the PUBLIC POLICY FIRST-HAND training that Cuomo used so skillfully. “I saw the way he called me into the offi ce house,” he says. A college internship for then-lieutenant and would ask me what I thought about With a Harvard law degree in hand, governor of New York Mario Cuomo became something, and whatever position I took he’d Gordon began working at the international a pivotal experience for Gordon. “Everybody totally demolish me. And then if somebody law fi rm Hughes Hubbard and Reed. The was convinced he had absolutely no political else came in and took the position that he newlywed law associate arranged that he

4 would work for six months, then take a six HEADING WEST months’ leave of absence so that he and Anne When Gordon and baby could travel around the world. “And so those Charlie encountered the “What we provide is critical for fi rst six months, we lived off Anne’s salary University of Southern Maine students’ intellectual growth, and it’s and saved mine. And then we used it to travel administrator on their 2000 particularly important now when the around the world.” plane ride, the Columbia He recalls the trip as a phenomenal professor had already economy is in fl ux, and it’s particularly experience. To enhance the experience and demonstrated that he was important now given what’s going on even sometimes make extra money, Gordon up for new and challenging gave lectures in various countries and spoke adventures and opportunities. in our society.” with a series of groups and universities in His time as dean at the -- Mark C. Gordon, DC President New Zealand, Australia, and Brunei. The University of Detroit Mercy U.S. Information Agency sponsored him School of Law was successful in Kuala Lumpur, where he lectured on and rewarding. He recalls it as He fi nds personal reward in helping to U.S. nuclear policy in front of 40 colonels “a really happy seven years.” shape young students. “When students are and lieutenant colonels at the Malaysian At UDM, Gordon developed and college-age, you can have an even greater Armed Forces Defense College. He was implemented nationally recognized public impact on helping them shape their lives able to secure speaking invitations because service programs, a distinctive international and discover who they are and the kind of he had been a teaching fellow at Harvard approach, and curricular innovations focused people that they want to be. They’re in a in the College and the Kennedy School of on success in getting jobs for its students. period in their lives where they are growing Government. Enrollment in the law school nearly doubled. intellectually by leaps and bounds. The newlyweds’ global trek included The school’s successes drew national “What we provide is critical for students’ taking a jeep across Tibet, spending a week attention. intellectual growth, and it’s particularly in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, and riding across “I’m particularly proud of the expansion important now when the economy is in fl ux, Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. of the clinical programs, proud of getting our and it’s particularly important now given The six months passed quickly, and students jobs at major national law fi rms, and what’s going on in our society.” Gordon returned to his law fi rm. In late particularly proud of Project SALUTE, the During his inaugural address on October November of 1992, he received a message to clinic that we set up to help veterans from an 8, Gordon enumerated what he sees as call Andrew Cuomo, someone he had come to RV. It’s still going, still on the road providing the intrinsic value of a Defi ance College know well during his years with the governor. free legal services for veterans,” Gordon education. (see page 6) And he spoke about Andrew Cuomo asked Gordon to serve as says. his motivation to safeguard the mission a consultant on the Clinton presidential When he left UDM for Defi ance, of educational opportunity in this country. transition team writing the transition report Gordon asked for one thing to take with him He told a very personal story of his now- for the Department of Housing and Urban - a U.S. fl ag that had fl own over a U.S. air deceased mother who, as a young girl in Development. That two-week project turned base in Iraq in honor of Gordon and Project Germany in the 1930s, stood alone on the into an appointment as Chief of Staff to SALUTE. The fl ag was presented to him on playground while the other children shunned Cuomo who was named Assistant Secretary the 50-yard line at Ford Field during a Lions- her because she was Jewish. Her family was at HUD. Vikings game last December. He displays it lucky enough to escape, as was his father’s For the next three-and-a-half years, proudly in his offi ce in Defi ance Hall. family which had fl ed the early nineteenth Gordon spent his week days in Washington, century pogroms of Eastern Europe, but fl ying back to New York on weekends. FROM DETROIT TO DEFIANCE it ingrained in them the importance of During his time at HUD, he served as Chief While there are similarities in leading education. “In a world in which everything of Staff for an offi ce that oversaw more than a law school and an undergraduate college, you own can be taken from you, what you $7 billion of federal homeless, housing, Gordon also sees them as different animals. possess inside your head and your heart community and economic development “When I was dean of the law school, the remains with you still,” spoke Gordon. programs. He played a signifi cant role in vast majority of people I spoke to in a “The very fact that I can stand before developing and administering Clinton’s given day were attorneys, and now I get to you today as the new President of Defi ance Empowerment Zones initiative and in the talk to not just lawers but also all kinds of College says something wonderful about creation of a new $350 million Economic other interesting people who have had these education and our country. And the fact Development initiative. fascinating lives across a whole series of that Defi ance College would choose as its After one term, the young couple areas. … new President – a Jewish fellow married decided to start a family, and so Gordon left “And, of course, Detroit is different to a Lutheran woman, who was Dean of a HUD for a teaching position in the School of from Defi ance. I think the college here Catholic law school and is now President of International and Public Affairs at Columbia. is so much more a prominent part of the a UCC college – well, that says something He started the job in August of 1996 and nine community than the law school in Detroit. wonderful about Defi ance College as well. months later, son Chris was born. Charlie And the students, they’re delightful. I’ve had When we at Defi ance draw the circle of followed in the spring of 1999. Gordon was so much fun getting to know them. They’re opportunity, we aim to include as many as we able to arrange his teaching schedule so that just an interesting group of really solid young can.”  Anne could work two days a week while he adults.” took care of their sons.

FALL 2009  5