Mordecai Lee
About
Mordecai Lee was born in Milwaukee in 1948. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970 and did his graduate work at Syracuse University (NY), receiving a Master of Public Administration (MPA) in 1972 and a PhD in public administration in 1975. Moving to Washington, between 1972 and 1975 he was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and then legislative assistant to a member of Congress. Returning home, Mordecai was elected in 1976 to the Wisconsin Legislature’s State Assembly and was re-elected in 1978 and 1980. In 1982, he was elected to the State Senate and re-elected in 1986. Milwaukee Magazine named him one of "Wisconsin’s Ten Best Legislators." After leaving politics voluntarily, in 1990 Mordecai was appointed executive director of Milwaukee’s Jewish Community Relations Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization promoting social justice and equal rights. He represented Milwaukee’s Jewish population in matters relating to legislation, public affairs, inter-group relations, and as its media spox. In 1997, Mordecai joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as an assistant professor of governmental affairs. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2002 and in 2006 became a (full) professor. His research interests were in American history, government public relations, and nonprofit management. He authored eleven books published by university presses and over 70 articles in scholarly journals. In 2018, he shifted to emeritus status and continued engaging in research and civic affairs. Beginning in 2023, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK) released six volumes compiling his writings (mostly from his articles) on public administration, nonprofit management, government public relations, and American history.