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Committee Decision
Accepted by nine universities that were bidding competitively for her, Dr. Lynette Wood put the difficult choice of which offer to accept into the hands of a committee. A family committee. “My husband and children were…
An Encounter in Church
Michael DeVaughn, a human resources executive in banking, lived in the same town where he had attended college. He belonged to the same church as one of his former professors. One August day six years…
Balancing – and Pitching
As a doctoral student in management at Duke University, Sharron Hunter-Rainey absorbed the same pool of knowledge her classmates did. She, however, was the only one also aiming to simultaneously achieve proficiency in camping and…
Wedding Invitation
The contrasts between corporate life and an academic career were drawn starkly in the early 2000s for former business consulting executive Miles Davis, now a dean at Shenandoah University. Watching his friends and former colleagues…
One City
One city. How hard could it be?, IBM executive Harriette Bettis-Outland wondered. Riding the wave of a successful, ten-year sales and marketing career in computer software, she had begun considering other options when her baby…
Young Motivators
For some prospective doctoral students, being the parent of young children is grounds to defer taking the plunge for a few years. But for Dr. Velvet Weems-Landingham, having a toddler and an infant was a…
Date Nights
The e-mail message was one of the longest and most detailed Dr. Ariana Pinello had ever received from a student. It recited countless facts and information bits from a class Dr. Pinello had taught, including…
“Dr. Mommy”
Enjoying a successful career at some of America’s best- known companies, Darlene Motley paused to reflect upon getting married. “I knew I wanted children, and I was traveling a lot. I did not want both…
More Than Money
Seeking out a new career path upon retiring from the Navy, Ulysses Brown taught middle school for a while, then enrolled in advanced graduate studies in psychology. Along the way, he began assisting a faculty…
“The Landlord”
Ricardo Valerdi was the only doctoral student in his program—and probably the state—who spent evenings repairing broken plumbing pipes and fixing faulty electrical wiring. The unusual nocturnal activities were the result of a creative, if…