Author Virginia N. Gordon, PhD, was assistant dean emerita and associate professor at The Ohio State University. A critical force behind the nation's growth in academic advising, Dr. Gordon wrote fifty books, monographs, book chapters, and journal articles on career counseling, advising administration, advising undecided college students, and advisor training. She was past president of the National Academic Advising Association and the founder and first director of the National Clearinghouse on Academic Advising. She was elected to Mortar Board in 1948 at The Ohio State University. She passed away on November 21, 2017.
Author-editor Jane A. Hamblin, JD, CAE, COA, is the executive director of Mortar Board, Inc., and the Mortar Board National Foundation and editor in chief of the
Mortar Board Forum. She has played senior student affairs roles at Purdue University and the University of Maryland–Baltimore County, and has been an instructor at Trinity University (Washington, D.C.) and Purdue. Before coming to Mortar Board in 2009, Ms. Hamblin had been a senior leader at three D.C.-based higher education associations. She was elected to Mortar Board in 1973 at Purdue University.
Contributor Susan R. Komives, EdD, internationally known scholar and observer of leadership development, is professor emerita at the University of Maryland. Executive editor of the inaugural New Directions in Student Leadership series, she has authored or edited a dozen books on leadership and student affairs. Komives is past president of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education and the American College Personnel Association and served two colleges as vice president. She was elected to Mortar Board in 1967 by the Torchbearer chapter at Florida State University.