Jacob U. Gordon

Jacob U’Mofe Gordon, Ph.D.

"Jake" Gordon is Professor Emeritus, the University of Kansas (KU) where he served for 34 years. At KU he established the Department of African and African-American Studies, the Center for African Studies, and the Center for Multicultural Leadership. The AAAS Department, established in 1970, was among the first in this discipline at a major research university in the U.S.

He was appointed as the Kwame Nkrumah Endowed Chair in African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon and erved in this position from 2012 to 2015. He was a Fulbright Specialist to Ghana in 2012. He is a founding member and ex-officio on the Executive Board of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) established on his birthday in October 2013. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Bullying Prevention Association and the United Nations Association of Gainesville.

Dr. Gordon received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, M.A. from Howard University, B.A. (honors) from Bethune-Cookman University; and L.L.D. (Honorary) from Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Gordon is an approved International Evaluator for the U.S. State Department Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

He is author, co-author, or editor of 26 books including Bullying Prevention and Intervention at School (2018), Double Heritage: A Memoir (2018), African Presidential Leaders: Selected Case Studies (2018), An Anthology of African Presidential Leadership and Governance (2017), Revisiting Kwame Nkrumah: Pathways for the Future (2016), Trends in African Studies (2016), African Traditional Leadership: Past, Present and the Future (2014), Winning the Future for Africa and the Diaspora (2011); African Studies for the 21st Century (2004); The African Presence in Black America (2004), and African Leadership in the Twentieth Century: An Enduring Experiment in Democracy (2002), Black Leadership for Social Change (2000), A Systems Change Approach to Substance Abuse Prevention (1997), Managing Multiculturalism in Substance Abuse Services (1994), and The Role of Higher Education in Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention (1993).

He was awarded a $110,000 research grant from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and completed Phase One of the project on African Presidential Papers and Libraries. www.applproject.com. He has traveled throughout Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America. Two major publications in 2018 and 2017 resulted from this grant.

Dr. Gordon has received many awards and honors including the establishment of the Jacob U. Gordon Collections at the University of Kansas Research Library in 2011.

He and wife, Barbara, a retired University of Florida professor, continue to travel, conduct research, and publish.