Newswise — Dr. David Ford calls them his “academic children and grandchildren.”
They are the business school graduate students the Naveen Jindal School of Management professor has encouraged and mentored for 20 years through The PhD Project.
The PhD Project strives to increase diversity in management by increasing diversity among professors in management classrooms. There were 297 black, Hispanic and Native American business school professors across the nation in 1994 when Ford and other leaders formed the organization. That number has climbed to 1,217.
For his years of helping others follow his path to a PhD, Ford will be honored as one of three inductees to The PhD Project Hall of Fame at the organization’s annual conference Nov. 20-22 in Chicago. The organization established its hall of fame in 2011 to recognize leaders who have made significant impacts within the organization’s network of minority business doctoral students and faculty.
“We are pleased to present the 2013 inductees to The PhD Project Hall of Fame. Since our inception, these individuals have served the project as presenters, mentors and advisors," said Bernard J. Milano, president of The PhD Project and the KPMG Foundation, the project’s founding organization. "They have put forth great effort to create diversity in academia and through that, the business world."
While earning his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the early ’70s, Ford said he was the only black person in the program. He joined UT Dallas in 1975, where he teaches courses in organizational behavior and mentors doctoral students and junior faculty.
His work with The PhD Project includes making presentations at annual conferences and directing the Minority Doctoral Students Association and the Management Faculty of Color Association. Ford also received an inaugural Lifetime Diversity Champion Award from the UT Dallas Office of Diversity and Community Engagement in 2010.
Ford said The PhD Project’s network of mentors assists students in various ways from helping them apply to doctoral school to finding ways to finance their educations.
“Part of it is folks having a real good understanding of the fact that their friends and colleagues aren’t going to allow them to fail,” Ford said. He said the attitude is, “Don’t even think about leaving the program. We will figure something out. It’s like a family.”
“Part of it is folks having a real good understanding of the fact that their friends and colleagues aren’t going to allow them to fail. Don’t even think about leaving the program. We will figure something out. It’s like a family.”
Carliss Miller, an international management studies doctoral student, said she decided to pursue her doctorate after attending The PhD Project’s conference in 2009. Miller met Ford there, and he encouraged her to earn a PhD.
“He’s the reason I came to UT Dallas,” said Miller, who entered the international management studies program in 2011. Miller has worked on research projects with Ford and has served as a teaching assistant for his classes.
Miller is one of 375 minority students in the country who are in enrolled in doctoral programs, according to The PhD Project. Ford said he wishes he could double the number of minorities with PhDs. Underrepresented minorities – blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans – make up 4 percent of the total business school professors nationwide, according to the organization.
“There’s tremendous opportunity ahead,” Ford said. “Any way I can help, I’m willing to do it. It’s a labor of love. It’s a fantastic thing to be involved in.”
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