UB School of Management statement on the tragic deaths in the Daniels family

Published July 5, 2022

Dear School of Management Community,

I am deeply saddened to share the devastating news that one of our May ’22 MBA graduates, Jordan Daniels, died in a house fire in Buffalo early Sunday morning along with her father, Jonathan Daniels, MD, associate director of admissions in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and her sister Jensen Daniels. 

Jordan was an inspired and compassionate soul. For the past year, as a graduate assistant for our Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness, she served as program assistant to the UB Leadership Coaching Certification, making numerous contributions. Jordan was always thinking of ways to contribute and be of service to others. She was a UB Nonprofit Board Fellow for the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, and a UB Social Impact Fellow for the City of Buffalo Office of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion. She also was active in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Her contagious enthusiasm had a profound effect on everyone she came in contact with. 

Jordan is survived by her mother, Janessa E. Givens Daniels, senior associate director in the UB Office of Financial Aid, who is hospitalized and recovering from the fire, and her sister, Jillian Daniels.

Please keep Jordan’s family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. We will share additional information when more details become available.     

If you are grieving, please know support services are available for students through UB Counseling Services at 716-645-2720 and for faculty and staff through UB EAP at 716-645-4461.

With a heavy heart,

Paul

Paul Tesluk
Dean and Professor
School of Management

A memorial fund honoring the Daniels family has been established to support scholarships for students of color and others who have been historically underrepresented in medicine.