Mortar Board

Virginia N. Gordon, PhD, is assistant dean emerita and associate professor at The Ohio State University. A critical force behind the nation's growth in academic advising, Gordon has written fifty books, monographs, book chapters, and journal articles on career counseling, advising administration, advising undecided college students, and advisor training. She is past president of the National Academic Advising Association, and the founder and first director of the National Clearinghouse on Academic Advising. She was selected to Mortar Board in 1948 at The Ohio State University. 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 and Purdue. Before coming to Mortar Board in 2009, she had been a senior leader at three Washington, DC-based higher education associations. She was selected to Mortar Board in 1973 at Purdue University. Susan R. Komives, EdD, an 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. She is past president of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education and the American College Personnel Association, and she served two colleges as vice president. She was selected to Mortar Board in 1967 by the Torchbearer chapter at Florida State University.

This book is different from many organization histories in that it is well founded in the history of our country. The authors tie the history of Mortar Board to the events that were shaping the United States and the world. This is a story of women in academia, World War II, women's rights, civil rights, professional development, Title IX, and how these events helped guide the formation of a national collegiate honorary dedicated to promoting equal opportunities among all people and emphasizing the advancement of the status of women.