https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoE962d4jvU
When Jocelyn Evans was earning her doctorate and starting out as a finance professor more than two decades ago, she felt very much alone as an African American woman. There were, at the time, fewer than 25 minority professors of finance in the United States.
Today, there are about five times as many and the face of finance education is literally changing, thanks in large part to an organization that Dr. Evans has been involved with since its inception 20 years ago: The PhD Project.
The PhD Project was launched in 1994 to address the severe under-representation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans in business — especially finance — by diversifying the front of the classroom and the business school faculty.
“There were few professors to guide me,” recalls Dr. Evans, who earned her PhD at the University of South Carolina in 1991 and went on to teach at the University of Iowa and Georgia State University before becoming the Economics and Finance department chair and a finance professor at the College of Charleston’s School of Business. “There were no minority faculty at all, so there was very little networking, no golf, no co-authorships. I knew nothing about research, or how to plan which school would be best for me.” Dr. Evans, unaware of how academia operates and how the research game is played, pursued a direction for her doctorate thesis that was largely incompatible with the university she was attending.
She was, effectively, in the wrong program for her academic interest.
Fast-forward two decades, when The PhD Project can point proudly to making a difference in numerous lives and academic careers.
Kelly Carter was struggling as a doctoral student in the mid-2000s because he, like Dr. Evans, was at a school that wasn’t the right fit for him. Because he was a participant in The PhD Project, Carter met Dr. Evans and other minority finance professors who guided him.
Through their efforts, Carter found the support he needed to move to another university doctoral program, complete the degree, become "Dr. Carter," and succeed in the next challenge — finding employment as a professor.
Because the total number of minority business professors has more than quadrupled since The PhD Project began, it’s no longer a rarity to find a minority professor at a university finance department. The project supports a critical mass of peers who mentor each other and conduct research together. Their collaboration has transformed the experience of becoming, and being, a finance professor for many minorities.
“There was no PhD Project for me,” says Dr. Evans, who has mentored countless PhD Project doctoral students and new professors, including Dr. Carter, both informally and as a faculty adviser to the PhD Project Finance Doctoral Students Association. “I didn’t go to any conferences. I had help from some professors, but no peer network. I took it for granted that that was just the way it was.”
Had The PhD Project existed to support her, she is convinced she would have formed valuable professional relationships for co-authorships and her career — which brought her academic success never before reached by African American women — might have soared even sooner and with far less stress.
There were, she recalls, “maybe four or five” minority finance faculty in mainstream academia when she began. “They were all male, older and already successful,” full professors and editors.
“I was a brand new PhD I didn’t go to their schools; I had no affiliation with them.Being a woman exacerbated this — the male doctoral students were getting extensive mentoring opportunities, and getting to put their names on papers. That didn’t happen for me or the other woman in my program.” Contrast her experience with that of Dr. Carter, who, after transferring from his first school, earned his PhD at the University of South Florida and is now an assistant professor of finance at Morgan State University. Or that of Dr. Dominique Gehy, an assistant professor of finance at Hofstra University.
Dr. Carter says Dr. Evans’ high level of professionalism provided a role model and inspiration. She has helped him identify, develop and carry out some of his research ideas, which he believes would not have happened had he not met her through The PhD Project. “We get valuable feedback and information about how to be researchers, how to take comprehensive exams, how to approach course work, and how to interview for a job,” Dr. Carter adds.
“The PhD Project has helped me since even before I first started my PhD,” says Dr. Gehy. “I learned many things about completing the program successfully, and through it, I saved myself from making a lot of mistakes.” She recalls meeting Dr. Evans in an airport and receiving invaluable advice about how to improve a paper she was about to present at an academic conference. Other professors and doctoral students have responded to her occasional late-night and weekend requests for help without hesitation, she adds.
“I definitely feel that I have support from an academic group outside my program that I can go to with anything. It is genuine help,” she says. “It’s so important to have this kind of network while you’re working throughout the (PhD) program, especially for minority students. A lot of us that are in a program are the first in the family, and there are not many other people around you that are in similar programs. Outside of The PhD Project, I don’t know other friends or people who I grew up with that are in a similar position.”
The PhD Project attacks a root cause of minority underrepresentation in corporate jobs: historically, very few minority college students study business as an entree to a corporate career.
A diverse faculty encourages more minorities to pursue business degrees, increasing the pool of minority applicants for positions in today’s multicultural corporate environment.
“The PhD Project not only benefits minorities — it benefits all people,” Dr. Carter added. “Because what is America about? It’s about diversity and it’s about exposure, and the more exposure you get, the better prepared you are to move forward.” Companies backing The PhD project are now seeing the payoff in a more diverse culture in the finance suite.
“A lot of us that are in a program are the first in the family, and there are not many other people around you that are in similar programs. Outside of The PhD Project, I don’t know other friends or people who I grew up with that are in a similar position.” Dr. Dominique Gehy, an assistant professor of finance at Hofstra University.
“The PhD Project is one of a core group of partners the Citi Foundation has sponsored, for over 20 years, because of the impact we have seen, the value it brings and because of its close alignment to our mission,” says Ana Duarte McCarthy, managing director and chief diversity officer, Citi.
“In shaping the diversity of faculty in business schools, The PhD Project creates an inclusive leadership culture that may better inspire young minorities to consider going to business school. This, in turn, creates a pipeline for Citi and others in the finance industry who are focused on ensuring our talent leadership looks like the communities we serve.”
Bernard J. Milano is President, The PhD Project and KPMG Foundation.