Jean Jordan

Jean Jordan, Head of Administrative Services (March 2019).

“Those of us who had the privilege of working with Jean deeply appreciated the invariably good sense, patience, and humour she shared with us. The grace and insight with which she guided us individually and as a department around the endless administrative pitfalls that thrive within a university was on a par with that displayed by Wayne Gretzky on the ice. Put more simply, by a former departmental chair (Bob Wyllie), “Jean was a wonderful lady and the mainstay of the department for many years. I know I could not have managed to do the Chair’s job without her.”

Dr. Noel Dyck, Professor, Anthropology, Simon Fraser University

"Jean was a dear friend and substitute mum at times as needed. She made the department feel like a family while keeping us all chugging along and managing the primadonnas and the paperwork-incompetent. I always remember how kind she was to me when my Mum died. Unconditional love!"

Dr. Marilyn Gates, Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, Simon Fraser University

I met Jean the first day I arrived in the SA department as a PhD student from a foreign country in 1978, and had the good fortune to benefit from her gentle but capable administration of the SA department not only as I completed my PhD, but as I subsequently became a faculty member teaching and coordinating in the University’s program with, by and for First Nations students in Kamloops, BC. She came for more than one of our annual convocations. Her deep interest in our work, unconditional support and kindness will always be remembered.

Dr. Marianne Boelscher Ignace, Linguistics and First Nations Studies, SFU, and Associate Member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology