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2020 GlobalMindED
The Future of Work is Diverse, Inclusive, Just and Equitable
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GlobalMindED closes the equity gap by creating a capable, diverse talent pipeline through connections to role models, mentors, internships for low-income students, returning adults, First Gen to college and inclusive leaders who teach them, work with them and hire them.
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Dr. Holmes, you are a First Gen role model and success story. What is your personal path and how did you make it to the higher levels of academia?
When I speak about success, I always tell people how much I deplore the phrase "self-made" because no one is self-made no matter where they started from in life. We all get and need help from others in order to achieve anything in life. Additionally, we all benefit from a constellation of resources, circumstances, and doors that have been provided and opened by others. First, I give a lot of credit to my family who instilled in us that education was really important and encouraged us to do our best in school as well as helped me out in so many ways along my journey. Then, I credit my public school elementary teachers in King and Queen Country, VA who saw potential in me and decided to switch me to the "advanced" educational track. I later participated in gifted and talented classes and was able to take college courses in high school through my attendance at the Chesapeake Bay Governor's School. Third, I give a lot of credit to my Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) health care team as without them, I wouldn't be here right now. When I was 14, I was diagnosed with Stage 4B Hodgkin's disease, which is a cancer of the lymph nodes. I went through several months of chemotherapy and a few weeks of radiation therapy. However, that didn't work so my last chance for survival was an autologous bone marrow transplant. Thankfully, that worked and my cancer has been in remission since 1997. I was Valedictorian of my high school class so people always had high expectations for me with respect to my education. I graduated undergrad in 2.5 years because of my early college credits and I took a full course load all year round. After graduating undergrad, I began my professional career to gain work experience even though I knew I wanted to eventually get a PhD. While working full-time, I earned my Master's degree from The University of Richmond in preparation to apply to Ph.D. programs. The first time I applied to 12 business Ph.D. programs, I got rejected from all of them. I was devastated. One day while I was searching for resources online, I came across The PhD Project website and learned that they sponsored an annual conference to help racioethnic minorities get into business PhD programs. I applied and got accepted to The PhD Project and learned everything I did wrong the first time around. I took additional quantitative courses at a university, retook my GRE exams and got a higher score, and reapplied to PhD programs putting into practice what I learned from The PhD Project conference. I got into a PhD program and started my program in 2008. Unfortunately, I faced racism and did not have a lot of support in my first PhD program and again, thanks to my mentors from The PhD Project, I was able to transfer to a much better PhD program where I had an amazing friend support system and very supportive professors. My dissertation co-chairs, committee members, PhD professors, PhD mentors, coauthors, sponsors, PhD Project colleagues, and Rutgers colleagues all helped me immensely in reaching this point in Academia. Finally, my husband, Kris White, has been by my side since 2010 and without his support, I would not have been able to achieve what I have.
You were recently promoted at your institution. Tell us about your new job and the goals that you have within that job for students and your colleagues?
After checking PhD Project records, I learned that I am the first African-American to earn promotion and tenure at Rutgers School of Business-Camden (RSBC) in 2019. While an Assistant Professor, in 2016, I was tapped with an administrative opportunity to found and direct a high school pipeline program to introduce high school students to business earlier and hopefully recruit them to RSBC. That experience solidified for me that I was not only good at administrative work, but that I really enjoyed administration because of the additional impact that I can make above and beyond my professorial role. Again, my mentors and coauthors played an important role in helping me guide my career and take on or turn down different opportunities as they came my way. Last year, I served on the RSBC Dean's search committee and learned a lot about the process and was happy that Dr. Monica Adya accepted our offer to join RSBC as the new dean. Due to personal and professional reasons, the previous Associate Dean stepped down from their role and Dean Adya asked me to consider the AD role. After conferring with my mentors and Dean Adya regarding her vision for RSBC, I happily accepted her offer to become her Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs. In this role, my principal responsibilities include developing criteria for and making decisions on admissions and scholarships, overseeing all undergraduate curriculum issues, assist with maintaining our AACSB accreditation, managing all undergraduate academic services with respect to advising and student issues, working with the enrollment management team to recruit students for all our undergraduate on-campus, off-campus, and online degree programs, and serving on the Dean's cabinet and representing RSBC at internal and external events. As we are currently in a pandemic, my immediate goal is to assist our dean in carrying out her vision to maintain high-quality remote instruction that keeps our faculty, staff, and students safe and our School financially stable. Longer term goals I have in this role is to increase our undergraduate student body, our graduation, and our retention rates, provide greater opportunities for our students to compete in case competitions, network with employers, secure competitive fellowships, enter competitive graduate programs, and obtain more full-time professional job offers prior to graduation, and better align our academic and extracurricular offerings to allow our students to take full advantage of what RSBC has to offer them.
As an African American leader at this crucial time in history, what do you most want others to know and do at this time to transform our current reality (and our past) for bright, inclusive future?
I think it is necessary that leaders everywhere work to eradicate systemic injustices, particularly as it relates to institutional and individual anti-Black racism. If leaders commit and properly invest in eradicating anti-Black racism, then more inclusive environments will be realized for all people because doing anti-racist work necessitates people dismantle multiple systems of oppression.
To learn more about Dr. Holmes, please read his bio at GlobalMindED.org |
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Links to read about Inclusive Leaders, many of whom are African American and people of color
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Curated sessions from GlobalMindED 2020 YouTube channel:
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From the Center for Positive Organizations:
From the Economist:
From Forbes:
From Harvard Business Review:
From the World Academy of Art & Science and UN; Geneva
Global Leadership in the 21st Century econference:
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Listen
here for an interview with Pam Newkirk, GlobalMindED speaker and author of
Diversity Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion- Dollar Business.
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Responding to Crisis
The 30-Day Justice Plan
As the reset of America is underway, understanding the role you can play in a system of change can be difficult, but we encourage you to listen, learn and be active. To start, instead of, say, a juice cleanse, feed your brain and move yourself with this practical plan over the next month.
Here's our guide of what to read, watch, listen to and do in order to be part of the solution.
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All
2020 GlobalMindED virtual programs are available NOW on our
YouTube
channel.
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GlobalMindED and the SDG Impact Fund are delighted to announce
GlobalMindED's Donor Advised Fund. 2020 is the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations and the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Women's Declaration and Action Platform. Many from around the world are thinking of 2020 as the gateway to our most vital decade for delivering equity, the Sustainable Development Goals, and a world where all can thrive. Our key time for these outcomes is 2020-2030.
GlobalMindED DAF and the SDG Impact Fund are a powerful combined force for good as the 2019 year comes to a close and we reflect on the gratitude and the commitments we make to the causes we care most about. The DAF offers immense power and flexibility for giving prior to the year's end as you plant seeds of generous intention for 2020 and the decade ahead.
When you contribute to GlobalMindED, you support First Gen students. We have served more than 400 students by connecting them to role models, mentors, internships and jobs. Your generous support will allow us to take our work 10x and reach these talented students at scale who lack the resources and support we provide. Your support also helps teachers who can't afford the conference fees, faculty at colleges which are under resourced and students who persist at those universities despite food insecurity and/or housing insecurity.
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Meet GlobalMindED Founder, Carol Carter as interviewed by Tim Moore
on his podcast Success Made to Last: From Success to Significance
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Related Articles:
Recent GlobalMindED Newsletter Profiles:
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Since 2006 when the flagship TGR Learning Lab opened its doors in Anaheim, CA, TGR Foundation has had a lot to celebrate, including its most recent milestone of one million students impacted by
TGR EDU: Explore, alone.
Developed in partnership with Discovery Education, TGR EDU: Explore is a free digital resource library that offers interactive web experiences, lesson plans, training videos and tools for educators, students and families to explore new disciplines and gain skills for a modern and expanding workforce.
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