Jean Ford Ed.D.

Introductory Bio
Dr. Jean Ford was born in Widnes, near Liverpool UK, in the aftermath of the Second World War. She was influenced
by her Grandparents, Captains in the Salvation Army, to understand compassion linked with action. This was
especially relevant because of the continuing troubles between Catholics and Protestants. Jeans Grandmother,
Captain Whitfield, sparked the reconciliation movement in Widnes. As a teenager Jean organized the areas largest
interdenominational gathering at the Queens Hall, Widnes. With the Liverpool Choir behind her, Jean stood on the
stage where a year later the Beatles were to be headliners.
Dr. Ford came to America as a teenager with the Airline Industry. Due to her extraordinary access to travel, she
traversed the world many times before the age of 30. This extensive early experience in travel allowed her to view
close up the influence of culture and religion on war and peace, women and children. She became a champion for
issues of Education, Human Rights, Interfaith Understanding, Religious Tolerance, Peace and Justice, and
Reconciliation.
Dr. Ford later founded the first fully accredited Travel and Tourism degree in the USA. She created over 30 courses
and five certificates as well as an AAS, which attracted over 3,000 enrollments each year, sometimes topping 6,000.
Her program became the model for colleges and universities nationwide and eventually worldwide. As Chair of
Travel, Tourism, Transportation and Trade at College of DuPage, the largest 2-year college in the USA with 60,000 to
70,000 enrollments, Dr. Ford linked her programs practical content and training to history, geography, religion,
culture, eco-tourism, sacred sites and environmental issues. She also worked with DePaul University, Chicago, to
offer the first 4-year degree in Tourism and Geography in 1985. In the following years she counseled thousands of
students toward independent careers in the Travel Industry.
Dr. Ford was one of the early pioneers to recruit and hire African American Professors at College of DuPage and to
support hiring of the first African American flight attendants and ticket agents with major airlines. At the Hampton
Conference in 2003, Mrs. Coretta King personally expressed her thanks.
After accompanying Baroness Caroline Cox from the House of Lords, UK, on her humanitarian missions to Armenia
and Karabagh (1995-2000), Dr. Ford became Lady Coxs Special Envoy in the U.S. She introduced Lady Cox to the
Armenian communities in Detroit and Chicago, as well as to Wheaton College and College of DuPage. She raised
funds for Cox Clinic and the Operation Christmas Child airlift, and traveled with Lady Cox to personally deliver the
shoeboxes to the children of Armenia and Karabagh, in villages still plundered by war.
Dr. Ford was nationally ordained by American Baptist Churches USA, 1999, and is presently Senior Clergy, Minister
Worldwide, under the ABC Chicago Metro Region. She is currently Professor/Chair Emeritus, College of DuPage,
and International Chaplain, The Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem Worldwide (OSMTH). She is
Deputy Chief of Mission to OSMTH at the UN in Geneva, Spiritual Values and Global Concerns Committee, and
OSMTH Chief of Mission to the International Peace Bureau, Geneva. She is an advisor to educational, religious and
political leaders. Dr. Ford is a dual citizen of the UK and USA and resides in Chicago, Illinois while spending
summers in the UK.