Jordan hits the road as new dean of admission

August 6, 2007
Jordan hits the road as new dean of admission

By Elaine Justice

The Class of 2011 has yet to arrive on campus, but already Jean Jordan and the staff of the Office of Admission are hitting the road to begin recruiting the Class of 2012. Jordan, interim dean of admission, has been named dean of admission, but she’s barely pausing to take it in.

“I’ve already logged 25,000 airline miles in the first half of 2007,” said Jordan, who is in upstate New York this week for an admissions conference. She says the fall travel schedule is roughly double that of the spring, and it’s clear she loves every minute; in describing her role, she uses words like “fun” and “exciting.”

Jordan, a member of the admission staff since 1984, is the first woman and second person to hold the post of dean of admissions. She succeeds Daniel Walls, now associate vice provost for enrollment management at Emory.

“Jean has played a major role in Emory’s success in the competitive world of undergraduate admissions,” said Santa Ono, vice provost for academic initiatives and deputy to the provost. “She has been a part of the professional staff when application volume, national visibility, selectivity and diversity in college recruitment have surged.”

During Jordan’s interim year as dean of admission, Emory College received a record number of applications for admission (15,343 in 2006–07) and had the lowest admit rate in the college’s history (27 percent). The admission office also developed a new Student Admissions Advisory Group, hosted the first international counselor program, and collaborated with the Emory Alumni Association and Emory’s Development and Alumni Relations Office on several new initiatives, including offering prospective students the opportunity to meet with alumni, faculty and administrators at events around the country. She also helped usher in new programs such as Emory’s partnership in QuestBridge, a national nonprofit that links highly qualified, low-income students with full four-year scholarship opportunities at some of the nation’s best colleges.

Jordan’s career at Emory began as an admission counselor and included stints as assistant dean and associate dean before becoming director of enrollment services in 1995. Prior to that she served as an admission counselor at Stetson University, from which she received her undergraduate degree, and Tift College. She holds a master’s degree in education administration and supervision from Georgia State University.

Jordan has been active professionally, serving recently as president of the Common Application Board. She is a member of the National Merit Scholarship Review Committee, and has served in a number of capacities with the National Association for College Admission Counseling, most recently as a member of the fiscal policy committee.

In her new position, Jordan will manage an admission staff of 35 professional employees, who receive more than 130,000 inquiries per year and are responsible for generating more than $60 million annually in college tuition and fees.

Jordan said the coming year will be especially important for Emory as programs such as Emory Advantage and Emory’s partnership with QuestBridge become more widely known to prospective students. “There’s no downtime for our office,” she said. And that’s a good thing.

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