Barbara McDade Gordon

Barbara McDade Gordon is Associate Professor Emerita, Geography and African Studies, University of Florida; and an Affiliate Faculty Member in the Center for Arts, Migration, & Entrepreneurship (CAME) in the UF College of the Arts; and serves on the Advisory Committee of the African American Studies Program at UF. She is a founding director of the Alachua County African and African American Historical Society, member of Alachua County African American History Task Force, President of Welcoming Gainesville & Alachua County, and Secretary of the United Nations Association Gainesville. She serves on the Boards of Directors of the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, and the Cultural Arts Coalition. She is also a Board Member of the national organization, Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE).

Barbara served as Director of Upward Bound, a college preparatory program for promising students from low-income households in a joint appointment, 2004-2012. She continues to communicate with Upward Bound graduates and their parents and is proud of their accomplishments.

She received the Bachelor of Arts from Texas Southern University; Master’s in Community & Regional Planning and Ph.D. (Geography & Planning) from University of Texas-Austin. She was a Visiting Professor at the University of Ghana 2013-14. She is a Fulbright Scholar and founding member of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA). Her current research focus is on the Global African Diaspora. Barbara is the proud mother and grandmother of a daughter and son, and grandson. She and her husband, Dr. Jacob U’Mofe Gordon, share a blended family of six children and three grandchildren. She is fulfilling one of her major goals in “retirement” which is to learn to play the flute. And, she looks forward to taking up painting portraits and writing a historical novel.