Celebrating 30 Years of The PhD Project
How one organization fueled the journey of three academic leaders.
On November 7 from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Rutgers University, The PhD Project hosts the third of three celebrations this year, marking 30 years of working to diversify corporate America by diversifying the role models in the front of classrooms. In its three decades, the nonprofit organization has sextupled the number of historically underrepresented business professors in the United States, from 294 in 1994 to more than 1,700 today. Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, Provost & Interim Chancellor; and Dr. Helen Brown-Liburd, Associate Professor, both at Rutgers University-Newark; and Dr. Oscar Holmes, IV, Associate Professor and Director of the Rutgers University Student Executive (RUSE) program at Rutgers University-Camden, share their insights on their journey in and toward leadership roles.
How has The PhD Project enhanced your leadership?
Dr. Jeffrey Robinson: I got involved with The PhD Project 27 years ago, and it came at a point in my life where I was looking for a pivot in my career. I had worked as a project engineer at Merck, and I was looking for an alternative path that would help me to fulfill some of the things I wanted to do in my life, and The PhD Project gave me that pathway. The PhD Project provided a mentorship environment. It connected us with other peers and then with people who have been out there for a while, professors who had gone through the same paths that we had done. They also fostered a network of people who, over the years, have all done similar things along this career path for us to be successful. Everybody thinks about leadership as being how you are out in front of other people, showing them the way to do things. The other aspect of leadership that The PhD Project shows us is the power of mentorship, and the network, and of pulling together to achieve a common goal. Those are key components of real leadership, because with mentorship and networking, we leverage our strength as a group. Those are the things every leader needs to know how to do to be successful and to chart their path in their career.
Dr. Helen Brown-Liburd: The PhD Project has enhanced my leadership because it has given me access to people who are quite successful, in a space where they are wanting to embrace you and help you. I have what I call my PhD Project family because thatʼs how I feel about them. I could pick up the phone and say, “hey, you know, Iʼm dealing with this situation, and I could really use your help” or “Iʼm considering this move, I could really use your input,” and thereʼs a variety of people to help you. So, just by establishing The PhD Project and bringing us together on a continuous basis, youʼre being seen and gaining confidence, and that puts you in a position to when you do have these leadership roles, youʼre prepared to step into that, or that youʼre even recognized and being called on to assume those roles.
Dr. Oscar Holmes, IV: I got rejected from all 12 Ph.D. programs I applied for the first time around. I didnʼt know anything about The PhD Project at the time. I was doing a search and was very distraught. I came across The PhD Project website. I had never heard of it before. I found out they had this annual conference, so I applied, and luckily got in. I attended the formal conference in 2007 and learned all the things I did wrong, but most importantly, I gained much more confidence in myself and met some key people who were able to mentor me. Many of them are still my mentors to this day. I then got into a Ph.D. program the next year when I applied. So, I tell everyone, I wouldnʼt be Dr. Holmes today had it not been for The PhD Project.
Dr. Jeffrey Robinson: The PhD Project is a powerful organization for every Black, Latinx and Native American business scholar thatʼs out there. Itʼs a powerful tool for leadership development, career development, professional development, and frankly, for the development of the business schools around the country.
Why is it important for historically excluded or underrepresented individuals to become leaders in academia and business?
Dr. Oscar Holmes, IV: As a leader, you have the amazing opportunity to not only influence the way people think, but to set policies and to set the culture and to make impactful decisions. When you are of the mind of value and diversity, value and equity, value and inclusion, you are much more likely to implement those policies and practices to make these institutions much better for everyone.
Dr. Helen Brown-Liburd: Weʼre not what you see depicted on TV, what the media makes of us. We are a diverse group in terms of where we are and what we do and what weʼre capable of, and Iʼm not an exception. I think itʼs important to show those cultural differences and that youʼre confident. Because we donʼt have the same skin color, because we didn’t come from the same part of the country, does not make me less than or you more than, and vice versa. I think when you have different perspectives, it leads to better decisions.
Dr. Jeffrey Robinson: The underrepresented minorities in business school ranks, those numbers have changed. Not only have they changed from the standpoint of who’s in front of the classroom, but they’ve also started to change who department chairs are and who’s in the Dean’s office. Just by increasing the numbers, some of those folks are going to be not just professors who get the job done and make impacts in our classroom, but also people who take on leadership to lead other professors. Some of us, a few of us, have now gone to that next level to be provost and chancellors and presidents, proving there’s a pathway that happens when you have representation in the room.
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