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The A-Team: Three Decades of Assisting Duke's Presidents

Lisa Jordan has served three Duke presidents

Lisa Jordan, left, and President Richard H. Brodhead celebrate a moment in Jordan's office. Jordan has served as executive assistant for three Duke presidents. Photo by Marsha Green.
Lisa Jordan, left, and President Richard H. Brodhead celebrate a moment in Jordan's office. Jordan has served as executive assistant for three Duke presidents. Photo by Marsha Green.

As executive assistant to Keith Brodie, 7th president of Duke University, Lisa Jordan wrote daily appointments in a brown spiral-bound calendar.

That was 1986.

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After serving as executive assistant to the 8th and 9th presidents too, the "at-a-glance" paper calendar remains Jordan's tool of choice.

"I started keeping an electronic calendar when President Brodhead came in 2004, but I find it easier to flip through pages than click through computer screens when looking for a date," Jordan said. "So I keep both."

Jordan arrived at Duke two years out of college in 1979 and took a job as a typist in the Psychiatry Department. Soon, she was administrative secretary to Brodie, who, at the time, chaired the department. She remained his assistant through his later presidency. For nearly three decades, Jordan has been gatekeeper to presidents, serving Nannerl Keohane and now, Richard H. Brodhead.

She adapts to presidential preferences. Keohane introduced email. Brodhead prefers online calendars. Now, from her desk outside the presidential corner office, Jordan triages hundreds of emails, dozens of daily phone calls and a steady stream of visitors for Brodhead.

"On any given day, he can easily be doing 10 different things, starting with a breakfast meeting with Durham officials and ending with a student dinner meeting or welcoming remarks at an evening event," Jordan said. "My job is to constantly look ahead to make sure he is where he is supposed to be and that he has what he needs to be prepared."

Jordan's decades of service are a bonus for Duke.

"Nothing happens at this place that Lisa hasn't seen before, and she is always 10 steps ahead of the rest of us," Brodhead said.

That is, until 2004 when she found a sealed envelope from then President Keohane on her desk. Jordan opened it. She would receive the Presidential Award for administrative professionals.

"I was totally in the dark about that nomination," Jordan said. "I've never forgotten that moment."