Gordon is a Certified Wildlife Biologist® and served as New York State’s Chief Wildlife Biologist prior to his retirement from State service in 2015. He worked as a wildlife biologist for New York State for 35 years. He currently serves as the Executive Secretary for the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Inc. (NEAFWA) which represents all the states from Virginia to Maine, along with the eastern Canadian Provinces. NEAFWA hosts the annual Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference, the most important gathering of fish and wildlife scientists and managers in the northeast.

Gordon received his Bachelor of Science in wildlife management from the University of Maine in 1978, and his Master’s in wildlife ecology from Oklahoma State University in 1980.

Active in The Wildlife Society (TWS), the preeminent professional organization for wildlife biologists, Gordon served as its President from 2021-2022. He was elected as a TWS Fellow in 2007. His professional awards include the 2008 William T. Hesselton Award from the Northeast Wildlife Administrators Association, the 2015 George Bird Grinnell Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation by the Wildlife Management Institute, the 2015 John Pearce Memorial Award by the Northeast Section of The Wildlife Society, the 2015 Class inducted to the New York State Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame, Honorary Membership awarded by the Camp Fire Club of America in 2016, the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York State Trappers Association, Professional Membership in the Boone and Crockett Club (2021), the 2024 New York State Conservation Council’s Professional Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2024 University of Maine Distinguished Wildlife Alumni Award, and the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Gordon is the lead author on a technical review of the Public Trust Doctrine published by The Wildlife Society in 2010, and he is a co-author on a technical review of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation published by TWS in 2012.

Gordon spent the better part of 20 years working to ensure that regulated trapping remained an important tool available to trappers, wildlife researchers, and wildlife managers. He was central to the development of best management practices for animal traps using standards established by the International Organization for Standardization. This body of work is now published by TWS as a Wildlife Monograph and is widely recognized as a seminal and definitive work on the World’s most comprehensive trap performance research program ever completed. The availability of best management practices for animal traps is a game changer for wildlife management in the United States and Canada.

Gordon is married and has three grown children, and nine grandchildren. He is a very avid wild turkey hunter and especially enjoys fall turkey hunting.