NyaDorsey, Author at PhD Project Stories

Fulfilling

The dollars—offers of them, that is—were flying at Constance Porter. Comfortably situated in a prominent management consulting firm, she found herself the object of an unsolicited, escalating bidding war by two companies seeking to recruit her. The offers were growing increasingly attractive. Uncertain of how to respond, she sought her father for guidance. What she…

The Mathematics of Life

The reminders would arrive in Helen Brown’s mailbox, like clockwork, every year. The wrong time of year, as far as she was concerned. “Those PhD Project mailings would always come at bonus time,” recalls the erstwhile corporate and Big Four accountant. The message in those PhD Project brochures was seeping into her consciousness, but next…

To MBA or Not to MBA, II?

Once Dr. Brett Gilbert decided to pursue an advanced degree in business, she cut right to the chase. She bypassed earning an MBA, focusing sharply on her ultimate goal. She enrolled directly in a Ph.D. program. And, like many others who had reached similar decisions before her, she soared. “Having an MBA does not necessarily…

A Well-timed Invitation

Dan Stewart, back in his undergraduate days, paid more attention to his professors than did most of his classmates. He was sizing them up as potential role models. “I liked watching my professors, and I held them in high esteem,” he says. “I thought that being up there and doing that was something I’d enjoy.…

Programmed to Succeed

From high school days in his native Ethiopia on, Amanuel Tekleab yearned to become a professor. Spurred by parents who lacked formal schooling but placed great value on education, he set out after his dream. The path led to seven years of teaching business in his homeland, and then to the United States, where he…

Banking On A New Career

As a retail branch manager and vice president for one of the world’s premier banking companies, Patricia Hewlin often found herself at the front of a training classroom, instructing employees in job skills. Before long, this rising corporate star realized that teaching, even more than banking, was her calling. Fortunately, her employer knew just what…

A Waiting Room Epiphany

Five kids call Leila Borders “Grandma.” Hundreds of young adults now call her “Professor.” In a quarter-century corporate career, Leila Borders had never entertained a thought of teaching until she sat in a doctor’s waiting room one day in 1996, eyeing an article on a PhD Project participant. It was as if a light went…

Urban Entrepreneur to Academic

In a career that started on the streets and has now turned to academia, Jeff Brice, Jr. has run his own film production company, headed a construction business, and worked on job-development with ex-convicts and welfare mothers. As an affordable housing developer, he recalls, “We’d go into drug-infested properties, kick out the dealers, and then…

Something That Lasts

Millicent Nelson, born to a family full of academics and students, recalls that “teaching was a gift from God to me; I was always the one teaching people how to do things.” But she restricted her instructing to the corporate world, where “I was having a great time” in seventeen years of frequent travel, promotions,…