Robert L. Gordon III, MPA '89, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Military Community and Family Policy, will present a public talk at the Woodrow Wilson School titled, "Military Force Planning and Decision-Making," on Monday, February 20, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. in Bowl 016 of Robertson Hall.

Gordon is responsible for policy, advocacy, and oversight of all community support to service members and their families, including quality of life issues, family assistance services, child development and youth programs, military spouse career advancement, and family violence prevention and intervention programs.   Included within the purview of his office is advocacy for quality education for all military students and he has defense-wide policy responsibility for the Department of Defense Education Activity that serves approximately 84,000 students.  

Prior to his appointment, Gordon served as the chief people and program officer and senior vice president for civic leadership at City Year, where he was responsible for the organization’s people programs. A 1979 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Gordon was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery.  His 26-year Army career includes command and staff positions, duty as the aide-de-camp to then Brigadier General Colin Powell, service as an instructor and assistant professor of American politics, and the director of American politics at West Point in the department of social sciences. As a 1992 –1993 White House Fellow, he served as the special assistant to the secretary for Veterans Affairs and the director of special operations, office of national service, to help found the AmeriCorps program.  Gordon then served as the executive director and co-founder of the Service America program at West Point, and also as chair of ServiceNation: Mission Serve, an initiative that created partnerships between the military and civilian service sectors to fill critical gaps of need in the military community.

The event will be archived online for later viewing on the Woodrow Wilson School’s Webmedia site – http://wws.princeton.edu/webmedia.

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