Lisa Jordan: Gatekeeper to the President

Lisa Jordan has entertained everyone from governors to student protesters, senators to celebrities, in the 18 years she has been executive assistant to Duke's president. She has treated each with tact and diplomacy. She also makes sure the president is prepared for every meeting and appearance, and she oversees the office staff, coordinating their various functions.

"I try to keep us all in one ship, going forward," Jordan said.

In recognition of the steady course she's held during her 25 years with Duke, almost all of them served in the Allen Building, Jordan is one of four recipients of this year's Presidential Award.

President Nannerl O. Keohane, in a letter recommending Jordan for the honor, wrote, "She has an excellent sense of diplomacy and sometimes gently but unerringly advises me about the best course of action when I am about to make a misstep. She really is the linchpin of the presidency at Duke, and she makes all of us look good, while remaining personally in the background."

The inner voice in the outer office, Jordan prepares the president for the day ahead, briefing Keohane on delicate issues of concern. She is quick to let Keohane know which calls must be handled by the president herself and at which events the president's attendance will matter most. When the flurry of meetings and public appearances distracts the president from matching names with faces, Jordan quietly fills in the details.

In the nomination letter, Keohane praises Jordan's "uncanny ability to recall people and circumstances from across decades at Duke. She saves me from embarrassing mistakes routinely by reminding me of the last time I encountered an alumnus or important Duke friend."

Jordan has been keeping Duke decision-makers organized since 1979, when she began working for the chief resident and nursing supervisor in the medical center's psychiatry department. A University of North Carolina grad with a degree in psychology, Jordan had taken off for Florida after college, but within a year she was job-hunting back in her home state. (She grew up near Charlotte.)

"The Florida thing was a young, live-at-the-beach-for-awhile, spend-the-winter-in-a-warm-climate thing," Jordan said.

She checked out positions at UNC, but Duke had more to offer, she said. Former President Keith Brodie was chair of the psychiatry department when she started working at Duke. A year later, he hired her to work directly for him, and brought her to the Allen Building when he became chancellor in 1982.

After becoming president, Brodie invited Jordan to be his executive assistant when that position came open in 1986. She stayed on when Keohane became president in 1993.

"That was a big, big moment, to be part of Duke having the first woman president," Jordan said. "I was born in the '50s, for heaven's sake, and came of age in the '70s. Now it seems like a joke that it would be that important, but even in 1993 it was a defining moment for Duke."

Jordan will continue as executive assistant when Richard Brodhead comes aboard in July. She doesn't expect her role to change much.

"A lot of what people expect out of the president is the same," she said. Keohane, in particular, has been a very active president, and trying to meet all the requests on her daily schedule can be a challenge, Jordan said.

Twenty-four hours seems like a lot of time, Jordan said, until she balances it against where Keohane has to be and what she must accomplish in that time span.

"She's hard to keep up with," Jordan said. "She has so much energy and does so much. She can keep us all running after her trying to keep up." Much has changed at Duke in the quarter century that Jordan has been a part of the university. Often the change is a result of student -- and sometimes faculty -- demands. The president's office seems to be the most visible place to gather.

"There's a tendency among a lot of people to go straight to the top and talk to the president about their issues and projects and problems," Jordan said. "I've been in the center of a lot of swirling tornadoes over the years."

Jordan has made her way to the office through students lobbying for South African divestiture, a study-in by students objecting to a leadership change in the administration, and a sleep-in by students protesting conditions in off-shore sweatshops that manufactured Duke gear.

Through it all, Jordan stays the course, focusing on the details that keep the president on task and on time.

"There are times I feel I just can't do it all," Jordan said, "but I break it down into, today this is what I'm going to try to do, and not get overwhelmed by what's coming up."

Keohane is well-aware of the pressure. In the letter nominating Jordan for the award, Keohane wrote, "If mistakes are made in the president's office, they can assume a high profile, and have significant negative repercussions for those elsewhere in the university."

Anticipating problems before they happen often requires Jordan, who lives in Hillsborough and is the mother of a 13-year-old son, to put in long days. She said her connection to Duke is more than just a means of earning a living.

"I've felt often it was meant for me to be at Duke," she said. "I'm honored that I've been able to be in this job for this amount of time and work with so many good people."

Written by Nancy Oates

Presidential Award Links:

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