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Following His Heart
In 1983, Dr. J. Alberto Espinosa decided to get his Ph.D. in finance from Texas Tech University. After a year in the program, he realized that he was more interested in information systems than in…
Moment of Truth
“It’s a paper she can’t finish, or else she’s on overload from juggling her job and school,” thought newly-appointed accounting professor Dr. Veronda Willis when the young Hispanic woman hesitantly requested a private conference after…
Two A.M. Phone Call
Yancy Edwards knew when he began his Ph.D. studies that he’d soon be working into the early morning hours frequently. What he didn’t anticipate was the 2:00 a.m. phone calls from an undergraduate struggling to…
“Dr. Double”
As early as age sixteen in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, Alisha Malloy knew she wanted to get her Ph. D. She discovered her desire to teach when she taught a computer class at…
Eleventh Hour Challenge
Professor Nicole Thorne Jenkins doesn’t just help her students write their own success stories. She then puts them to work—for her. Dr. Jenkins invested her own time, energy, and commitment into a student who was…
Notes in a Drawer
Dr. Ashleigh Rosette keeps the handwritten notes and e-mails stuffed into a drawer at home, and there are now many of them. Typically, they start by recounting how much the writer enjoyed taking Dr. Rosette’s…
Influences
Growing up, Gail Dawson had never considered that there might be African-Americans teaching college. It was not until she enrolled at Florida A&M as an undergraduate that she learned otherwise. There, she encountered several faculty…
Chosen
“I’m a role model as soon as I walk into the classroom,” says Professor Laquita Blockson. “When I enter the room and say ‘I’m Professor Blockson,’ I can hear them say, ‘Whoa!’” Dr. Blockson first…
“If She Can…”
As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, Kimberly Dillon Grantham admits she “had no clue what a Ph.D. was—or what I could do with it.” What she did know was that attending her favorite…
Balancing
At dinnertime as a child, Maria Sanchez took it for granted that her mother and father would join her around the table virtually every evening to share the day’s experiences. Most summers, one or both…