St. Mary’s College of Maryland President Tuajuanda C. Jordan has been named one of Purdue University’s Distinguished Women Scholars for 2015-2016.
The award’s program, led by Purdue’s Office of the Provost in partnership with Discovery Park’s Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, honors alumnae who earned a Purdue doctorate and have made significant scholarly contributions to their academic communities.
Annually, each college dean at Purdue nominates two women for the honor, and a committee within the Office of the Provost selects the recipients. Jordan and fellow awardees will be honored at a campus ceremony on March 3.
In a letter announcing Jordan as an honoree, Susan Bulkeley Butler Chair for Leadership Excellence Patrice M. Buzzanell, said, “This honor holds great prestige. To be nominated alone is a credit to the high regard your home department at Purdue has for you. In recognizing you and the other scholars, we offer role models for the kinds of careers and personal lives that our women (and men) at Purdue aspire to lead.”
Jordan received a B.S. in chemistry from Fisk University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Purdue University. Her honors include being named a Purdue University Distinguished Alumni from the School of Agriculture in 2008, and, in 2009, being named a “revolutionary mind” by Seed magazine. In 2014, Jordan was honored by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Baltimore Metropolitan Chapter, with its Torchbearer Award, recognizing her contributions in education with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Jordan was tapped by The Daily Record as a 2015 Influential Marylander.
Jordan took office as St. Mary’s College’s seventh president in July 2014.