Nicole Gordon

Nicole A. Gordon is the Distinguished Lecturer and Faculty Director of the Executive MPA program at the Marxe School at Baruch College. She has served for over twenty-five years in government and not-for-profit leadership positions. She was the founding Executive Director of New York City''s pioneer Campaign Finance Board, building this reform agency into a nationally and internationally recognized model. At the Board she was responsible for the disbursement of tens of millions of dollars in public funding to candidates for New York City elective offices, enforcement of the New York City Campaign Finance Act, creation of sophisticated databases for public disclosure of campaign finances, distribution of New York City''s multi-lingual Voter Guide to millions of households, crafting of legislative initiatives and agency regulations, and evaluation of the impact of the Campaign Finance Program. After serving for 18 years at the Campaign Finance Board, she was the Vice President of the JEHT Foundation, which focused on criminal justice, international justice, elections, and juvenile justice. There she was in charge of all program areas and grants administration, working closely with government officials, academics, not-for-profit institutions, and other foundations to effect change in governmental policy and practice. She later was Chair of New York State''s Task Force on Public Safety Accountability, which was created to integrate evidence-based policy and practice in New York''s eight public safety (primarily criminal justice) agencies. She was the Executive Director of the Marshall Project, a not-for-profit, non-partisan news organization dedicated to covering America’s criminal justice system.

Before joining the Campaign Finance Board, Ms. Gordon served as Counsel to the Chairman of the New York State Commission on Government Integrity and as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in New York City''s Law Department, handling a wide range of cases including cases involving environmental, education, civil rights, and employment law. She was also a litigator in private practice as an associate at the firm of Debevoise and Plimpton.

She is a past president of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws ("COGEL") and has served on numerous committees of the New York City and New York State Bar Associations.

Ms. Gordon''s public service has been recognized with awards from COGEL (including "Special Recognition to the Campaign Finance Board for Extraordinary Service after September 11, 2001"), the Columbia University School of Law, New York State Common Cause, and the New York County Lawyers'' Association. She was a Harvard University School of Law Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow.

She has taught at the Fordham University School of Law and Cardozo Law School and has written law review and political science articles on subjects relating to law, public policy, and public administration.

Ms. Gordon holds an A. B. degree from Barnard College with Honors in Classical Greek and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was the recipient of the Convers Prize for best original writing on a legal subject. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Harold R. Medina of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Areas of Expertise

City Management

Criminal Justice

Education

Environment

Evidence-Based Management

Finance

Governance

International Development

Law & Regulation

Leadership

Management

Politics

Public & Nonprofit Organizations

Race, Class, Gender & Diversity