An interview with Riley Institute’s Don Gordon

Dick Riley, a 1954 Furman graduate, has served as Governor of South Carolina and as U.S. Secretary of Education under President Bill Clinton.

Since its founding in 1999, The Riley Institute at Furman has worked to get young people engaged in politics, public policy and leadership. The non-partisan institute—named for the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, a 1954 Furman graduate—has South Carolina’s social and economic future at its heart. In January 2014, The Duke Endowment awarded Furman a $1 million grant to help the Institute establish a permanent endowment. Don Gordon, executive director of the Riley Institute, talked about the Institute’s mission in an interview published in The Duke Endowment Newsletter.