30 Years of Enriching Education for All

• Through its efforts to increase the number of underrepresented faculty in U.S. business schools, The PhD Project has significantly advanced diversity and belonging in academia.
• The initiative provides a robust network of support, including mentorship and peer connections, helping doctoral students navigate their academic journeys and succeed in their programs.
• The presence of diverse faculty members has positively influenced students’ academic experiences and success rates.

 
Three decades ago, The PhD Project set out with a clear and ambitious vision: to help create greater diversity in the business world by fostering greater diversity in front of business school classrooms. Shaped by its founding partners—the KPMG Foundation, AACSB, and the Graduate Management Admission Council—this initiative has grown from a visionary idea into a transformative force in academia. From increasing the number of underrepresented professors sixfold to building a robust network of support and mentorship, The PhD Project has consistently championed diversity, equity, and inclusion in business education.

Today, many of The PhD Project’s trailblazers have gone on to become professors, deans, and university leaders, serving as powerful testimonials to the Project's enduring impact. As we commemorate 30 years of The PhD Project, we honor the personal journeys and collective achievements that continue to drive progress in business education and business.

Achieving Real Impact

Since its inception, The PhD Project has helped increase the number of Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic American, and Native American professors, administrators, and academic leaders at colleges and universities from 294 to 1,700. Additionally, close to 250 members are currently enrolled in business PhD programs and about 50 new student members join the Project each year. These success stories are powered by a vast network of partners, including more than 300 doctoral- and non-doctoral-granting institutions, over 40 professional associations, and dozens of corporations.

“The PhD Project is the most successful social impact initiative I've ever seen. I know this model works because I saw it play out in my own life,” says PhD Project member and former AASCB board member Ian Williamson, who is dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. He continues, “This organization is addressing a big problem today: the lack of representation in business and people studying business. We believe that when you change the people in front of the classroom, you can change the people who attend the class. The ‘Role Model Effect’ is extraordinarily powerful because it's built upon strong science around self-efficacy.”

Creating Role Models

Over the course of its history, The PhD Project has touched millions of people, from its members and their students to their colleagues and leaders at universities and in workplaces across the country.

That impact begins with the aspiring doctoral students who gather in Chicago, Illinois, each year to take the first step in their doctoral journey through The PhD Project’s annual conference. During the two-day event, these business professionals and students get a realistic look at what it really takes to earn a PhD in accounting, finance and economics, information systems and sciences, management, or marketing from people who’ve been there. They network with PhD Project doctoral students and faculty members as well as representatives from partner institutions and organizations. Ultimately, conference attendees emerge with the insights they need to make a decision about pursuing a doctoral degree.

Once enrolled in a PhD program, students become members of a PhD Project Discipline Specific Association (DSA) in their area of business studies. When students participate in a DSA, they receive access to critical opportunities that lead to success. In fact, 90 percent of members complete their business PhD, compared to the U.S. average of 70 percent. And an overwhelming majority of members go on to work in higher education upon graduation, with a 96 percent retention rate, compared to the national average of 60 percent.

That network of support also extends to PhD Project faculty who go on to become professors, department chairs, deans, provosts, and even university presidents. 

“The PhD Project provided an opportunity to connect with others,” recalls Joseph Gladstone, associate professor at Washington State University’s Carson College of Business. “You had peers, you had mentors, you had other people who were in the same boat as you. I had a lot of people who gave me education that I would not have gotten in my PhD cohort at school. It was wonderful.” 

That network of support, which is so integral to doctoral student success, also extends to PhD Project faculty who go on to become professors, department chairs, deans, provosts, and even university presidents. The PhD Project keeps these members actively engaged through opportunities to collaborate, network, and learn—from conferences on teaching success and publishing to AACSB’s Aspiring Leaders Seminar, designed to foster greater diversity among administrators.

The PhD Project is also a founding sponsor of The Tenure Project, an initiative created by PhD Project members to provide support for tenure-track faculty with a focus on the need for more diverse faculty to achieve tenure status in business schools. As a result of these efforts and initiatives, PhD Project members can be found on 670 campuses across the U.S., making an impact through their research, teaching, and leadership within their business schools and institutions overall. Today, among its ranks, The PhD Project has 10 university presidents and nearly 90 deans. 

Shaping the Future

PhD Project members and supporters believe that there’s tremendous power when historically marginalized students have someone who looks like them in front of the classroom—someone who shares some of their life experiences and understands their challenges, someone who has carved a path to success.

“There are so many reasons why I think it's really important to have diversity in the professoriate and for all students to engage with faculty who come from many different backgrounds and many different demographics,” shares PhD Project member Denise Lewin Loyd, associate dean for equity and associate professor at the Gies College of Business, University Illinois Urbana Champaign. “When we have that diversity in front of the classroom, and allow students to see faculty who look like me engaging and holding space in front of the classroom, that helps to break down those unconscious biases. … I think it creates that ‘if you see it, you can be it’ mentality.”

These diverse faculty members, by serving as role models, create an inclusive and supportive educational environment that crucially influences students’ ability to complete their degrees.

By effectively increasing the presence of underrepresented faculty, The PhD Project plays a vital role in fostering student success and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in business schools. Emerging research suggests that increasing faculty diversity not only attracts more underrepresented minority students but also enhances their academic success. Specifically, a work-in-progress research study, drawing on a comprehensive data set spanning 10 years and including data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, demonstrates that The PhD Project's initiatives are effective in increasing faculty diversity.

This enhanced representation serves as a pivotal catalyst, significantly impacting degree completion rates for traditionally marginalized business students. These diverse faculty members, by serving as role models, create an inclusive and supportive educational environment that crucially influences students’ ability to complete their degrees.

Greater representation in front of business school classrooms can make an impact on students in many different ways as part of the natural flow of learning. According to Helen Brown-Liburd, an associate professor and associate director of the Continuous Auditing and Reporting Lab at Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University, it wasn’t unusual for students who took her first-year course to resurface two or three years later, as they prepared to enter the job market, because they wanted guidance and insights about job opportunities and employers from people who looked like them. 

In the case of one Pepperdine University student, that impact was personal. In an interview with the Good Morning America television show, he described meeting and learning from Howard Jean-Denis, a PhD Project member and assistant professor of strategic management, as “comforting.” He shares that Jean-Denis was “almost like a father type of figure … someone who I can relate to.” 

PhD Project member Norma Ramirez Montague, who is the senior associate dean of academic programs and an associate professor of accounting at Wake Forest University, has had similar experiences with her students. “I think that students, particularly women and students of color, see me as a role model because they see a piece of themselves in me. They can look at me and say, wow, if she can do it, I can do it. I tell my students that everything that I've accomplished is attainable for them as well. I will support them. I encourage the students and I will be alongside of them to celebrate their accomplishments. But I do remind them it's going to take a lot of work.”

Continuing the Mission

Since its launch 30 years ago, The PhD Project and its partners have played a significant role in sextupling the number of historically underrepresented professors, administrators, and academic leaders at an extensive list of academic institutions. But broadening this impact in an era of increased challenges to DEI initiatives requires more partners and allies. To learn more about joining The PhD Project and its mission, visit phdproject.org.