Who we are
Mae Gordon dba University of the ’Hood® and Carl Gordon, MPA, University of Southern California, co-founder and first stewards of the University of the ’Hood.
This year marks my 57th year of being in love with and having courted and married my wonderful, phenomenal wife, friend, and partner. I am the proud husband of Mae Gordon. We are the proud parents of three intellectually curious, adorable adult children. I have been honored to carry the title of her husband since 1964 when I was 18 years old and she was 16 years of age. No, it was not a shotgun wedding; she was not pregnant. It was that once-in-a-lifetime pure love thing. And it still is. However, she told me the first time (as crazy-in-love teenagers), “If you do, you’re going to marry me.” I did, and the rest has been a beautiful friendship and love affair ever since. I must admit she has always been a bit smarter than me. She knew what her prime directive was from day one and taught me—Educate, Procreate and Educate.
To put that in historical context, our wedding vows were exchanged in Watts, an ethnic enclave in the city of Los Angeles, three months after the passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was signed into law on July 2, 1964; nine months before the signing into law of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, which was a few days before Barack Obama’s 4th birthday, August 4.
Mae is part of the UC family as a 20-year (staff) employee of UCLA. Mae is an alumna of the USC Thornton School of Music (30 units shy of her degree). Mae’s entire public 33-year working career has been spent in the cancer research field—two stints with USC Health Sciences Campus, one with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and two with UCLA. Mae’s employment with UCLA was in the division of Hematology/Oncology. Over Mae’s 20 years of employment with UCLA in the division, she has held varying assignments as an administrative specialist. Mae has also utilized her knowledge and skills in grant writing and packaging medical research grants. Mae has worked as the fellowship coordinator for the Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program under the leadership of Dr. Fairooz Kabbinavar and the world-renowned and highly respected oncologist Dr. Dennis J. Slamon, chief of the division of Hematology/Oncology at UCLA. As the fellowship coordinator, Mae was responsible for managing functions and events for the UCLA Fellowship Program. One such event was the Winter Workshop and Gala for the Hematology/Oncology Fellows at the swanky Bel Air Hotel. At right is a photograph that captures beautiful moments made possible by the support of Dr. Slamon and Dr. Kabbinavar and the extraordinary planning and attention to detail by Mae. I was in attendance to support her work.
As Bryan Adams asks in his song, “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” My answer: man, I really, really love this woman.
I am the co-creator of the University of the ‘Hood and co-author, along with Mae, of the mission of the University of the ‘Hood. I’m a proud product of the inner cities of Los Angeles County and of public education (K-12) and a former PhD candidate from the University of Southern California (USC). I earned my B.A. in cinema concurrently with my MPA from USC in 1975. I am a visionary, a stained-glass artisan, an unpublished author, a former real estate developer, and the designer of the commemorative scarves and mask in the African collection (Biden-Harris) and artwork for “Our Journey: 40 Decades—1619-2019,” inspired by the love of my life—Mae Gordon. I am also an inventor. In 1978, we were awarded a U.S. patent (U.S. Patent No. 4,095,274). https://www.google.com/patents/US4095274). The working name for the apparatus was the Calorie Computer. It was subsequently renamed the Nutrition Information Center (NIC). It was an apparatus for determining the nutritional content value in food and correlating calories expended during exercise for the management of diet and weight control in humans.
The University of the ’Hood scarf (40 decades from 1619 to 2019) was dedicated to Mae Gordon on her birthday in August 2019 and on the 400th anniversary of her ancestor’s arrival to these shores in August 1619.
As the fellowship coordinator, Mae was responsible for managing functions and events for the UCLA Fellowship Program. One such event was the Winter Workshop and Gala for the Hematology-Oncology Fellows at the swanky Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles. Above are photographs that captured beautiful moments of Fellows and their families at the end of their fellowship at UCLA, made possible by the support of Dr. Dennis J. Slamon and Dr. Fairooz Kabbinavar and the extraordinary planning and attention to detail by Mae. I was in attendance to celebrate and support her work.
We are a formidable team. We do things together that have kept us together 57 years and counting; even in pursuit of our artistic endeavors cited below.
We Love Colors
THE STAINED-GLASS FLORAL BACKDROP
CREATED, DESIGNED, AND FASHIONED BY
CARL AND MAE GORDON
About the University of the ’Hood®
The future home of the University of the ’Hood campus in Los Angeles.
View the video below.
A VIRTUAL VIDEO TOUR OF THE FUTURE HOME OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ’HOOD
The mission of the University of the ’Hood
The mission of the University of the ’Hood is to tell and disseminate the truth about America’s history, particularly emphasizing the African and African American experience.
The purpose of the University is also, to combat and counter the centuries of purposely malicious negative images and malevolent lies about Black people disseminated through motion pictures, mass media, and popular culture worldwide.
Further, and perhaps the most important mission of the University is to promote self-healing and self-love and to propagate those seeds of Black love and aspirational living in African American communities throughout the United States and the entire African diaspora.
The honoring of Rachel and Jackie Robinson, through an initiative (https://42withinherlifetime.org/) and proposals put forth before UCLA and the city of Los Angeles, is part of the important mission of exalting Black icons of the struggle for freedom so that future generations will know of their contributions of uplifting humanity; perhaps becoming fighters for human rights, and racial justice, and dignity for all people.
A healed heart and mind is a beautiful thing!
Social justice donations are not tax-deductible
as charitable contributions.