My story begins in Ohio by way of Birmingham Alabama. I am a first-generation college graduate. However, the real trailblazers are my parents. They were members of the Great Black Northward Migration or the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the Southern states to the Northern states. They stopped in Birmingham, where my father worked in the steel mills for several years, ultimately heading north to Ohio, leaving all their family behind. Their motivation was to be certain their children never attended segregated schools. Yet, they both strongly influenced my emphasis on formal education and how to succeed, despite the odds.
While neither of my parents had a college degree, they obviously valued education while emphasizing the importance of strong moral character, personal integrity and honesty, coupled with a strong work ethic. They lived and taught this framework as the bedrock for achievement. While I value the insights and moral instructions of both my parents, I would like to indicate the strong influence my father had on my education and academic development, along with a brief discussion of two other very supportive men that had a profound influence on my life. My purpose is to indicate that supportive and constructive men can have a very positive influence on pioneering women’s success in male dominated professions and I start with my father.
My father noticed early on that I had a facility for reading and I also enjoyed adding up numbers. While he worked in a factory during the day, after work he went to his second job, painting cars in his own body shop. While I was still in elementary school, he would walk in the house on Saturday and ask me, “how much money did I make this week, Carolyn? Eager to please, I would add up his invoices, my first connection to business. I loved mathematics and took every course offered. However, in high school, I wanted to quit because I was the only girl in my math class and was teased by my male classmates. I told my father I was dropping the advanced algebra class or I would probably never get a date. In this pivotal moment, my father said, “I am sure you will get a date and more importantly, they will all want to marry you some day, men like smart women!” My father was correct on both counts, I married an engineer, who became the second man who had a great influence on my entry into the STEM disciplines.
At the end of my junior year, after placing a heavy emphasis on mathematics and computer programming as an undergraduate, I still had not decided on an occupation or what to do after graduation. This was another pivotal moment when I needed advice. This time, my then husband said to me, “why don’t you try accounting? It could be a great fallback position; all firms need accountants”. The rest is history; I attended summer school and doubled my course load as a senior and graduated with an accounting degree, tired, but in the job market with corporate entities and major accounting firms. With offers from both, I could not make a final decision.
Lead by intuition, I decided to seek advice from a very influential Caucasian man; a chief accountant. I called the chief accounting at a major corporation and confessed I was at turning point. He convinced me to enter the world of corporate accounting for large aerospace firm. He observed that I loved diversity in academic disciplines (mathematics, computer programming and accounting). At this pivotal moment, despite what I thought was an eclectic background, he indicated I would be highly valued in a corporation, as all his current accountant hires were “plain vanilla” types-- his words, not mine. He also indicated, it was wise to go with your unique skill set, a lesson I never forgot. I joined a management training program in a 40-person accounting department. Utilizing all my skills, I worked in corporate accounting for eight years and was supported by an excellent mentor, the chief accountant.
Fast forward, and further advice from the chief accountant I found that I needed to earn a Master's degree in accounting to be viable for an executive promotion. I took his advice and decide to enter a one-year intense program at a regional state university. While still working and studying, within 10 weeks, the department at school ask if I would consider teaching an introductory accounting course as they valued experienced business professionals. After completing the Masters of Accountancy degree, I knew I truly enjoyed teaching and loved interacting with students. I decided to consider an academic career at some distant point far in the future.
However, after eighteen months in my new corporate position, I was enrolled in an accounting doctoral program in another state, earning the doctoral degree that would allow me to do what I really loved, teaching as a professor at a research university. Despite my chief’s accountant’s lament “Do not waste a fine mind in academia”, I decided to listen to my heart urging me forward. I didn’t know until I landed in the program I would be a pioneering minority woman seeking a doctoral degree in accounting coupled with finance. Undaunted, I completed my degree and again used my skills to develop a research area in capital markets on the cusps of mathematics, finance, and accounting.
While I did enjoy earning a doctoral degree (most of the time), I was very lonely at times, although married with a family. In my program, I saw very few females and only one other minority student. I wanted to change this picture but did not know how to do so as a young assistant professor. As I rose through the ranks, we lived in four states and coordinated family life and my husband’s corporate career. Moving is never easy but I felt if my parents could leave their entire family in Alabama to move north to Ohio for better opportunities, we could do likewise. In fact, I learned that moving to different states across various regions enhances perspective and teaches flexibility, skills invaluable in an academic or any professional career. As minority professional pioneers, we often have to build new relationships wherever we are planted and embrace change as we try to smooth the path for others that will eventually follow our footsteps. I definitely wanted to give back to my community and encourage other minorities to enter my field. When I was ready, KPMG became a part of my academic life.
As fate would have it, I was invited to a KPMG meeting focused on attracting more minorities into higher education in accounting. At the meeting I met the organizer Mr. Bernie Milano, pictured next to me above, the inspirational and influential head of the KPMG Foundation, also involved with academics. It was the early years of the organization that would become the PhD Project, and many of us worked intensely to support KPMG’s diversity academic mission. I did so because I believed in their premise “more experienced business-minded minorities in the front of the classroom would result in more students entering the accounting field. Thus, Mr. Milano had a pivotal influence on my career over nearly 25 years or more, along with Bob Elliot, another KPMG partner. While Bernie gave wise advice and Bob and his wife, Lee were my friends when I had so few on my lonely journey. Looking back the Callahan family needed both KPMG partners, and I needed them when I met the “bumps in the road” that all academics face. Clearly minority females feel “the bumps” more acutely because we are truly new entrants to academe in predominately majority dominated universities—a territory that was fraught with missteps and challenges.
I valued Bob’s kindness and Bernie’s business acumen as well as wise advice at turning points in my career, from earning tenure twice (a real hard bump) to the rank of full professor, chaired professor and ultimately progressively higher administrative roles in academia. My administrative roles started with Director of a School of Accountancy, as well as eventually occupying the dean and associate provost seats, trailblazing at each step. I hope students learned that our path is seldom if ever a straight line at one institution, often we must bloom where we are welcomed and planted! African Americans have been teaching and progressing in higher education for centuries. We are the backbone of the HBCUs that turn out our finest students and success stories in STEM and related disciplines in the nation.
As for me, I am grateful for having this opportunity to acknowledge the advice of the group of strong talented men (starting with my father and husband) and evolving over time to men on the professional side. They supported my efforts, and made it possible to pursue a career in a closely aligned STEM discipline that I love. Without their insights into my personal character, potential capability and constant support, I am not sure I would have found my path alone. Then again, I might have! However, without these supportive men at the pivotal turning points in my life, I am certain my career path would have certainly been much rockier and included far more pitfalls.
In closing, I would encourage all professional men to take an interest in the career aspirations and potential talent of the women in your family and those passing through your life. Who knows what an inspiration you could be for her? I hope my story assures such men, you have the power to make all the difference in the ultimate success of talented women!
