Dear friends:

A call to increase faculty from underrepresented groups in business schools has rung loud and clear for some time now. Not just at WSU, but across the country, faculty search committees battle to attract quality applicants from a diverse range of communities. One of many important reasons for this pursuit is the presence of faculty from underrepresented backgrounds is known to attract and retain diverse undergraduate students.

Although hiring efforts remain strong, the primary challenge has always been on the supply side—few people from underrepresented groups have been pursuing PhDs.

The PhD Project has worked diligently for over a quarter century to promote diversity among business school faculty and address longstanding representation gaps nationwide. Our college has been a proud member of this prestigious business school group for several years.

The organization was founded in 1994 by the KPMG Foundation, Citi, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Student members boast a 90 percent doctoral program completion rate compared to a 70 percent average nationwide. Furthermore, 97 percent of those graduates accept faculty positions upon graduation. The program has truly made a difference.

The organization’s prime event is its annual conference in Chicago. Some of the nation’s brightest and most accomplished individuals from historically underrepresented groups gather to explore PhD opportunities and meet with university representatives. MISE department chair, Rob Crossler, recruited for us at the conference recently.

“I left the conference knowing these individuals were going to flourish as they accepted professor positions within the various business disciplines,” he says.

Our PhD Coordinator Titus Nordquist, who has been regularly recruiting for us at the conference, notes it allows us to reach many underrepresented individuals at a single event.

“Most of the attendees are business professionals with workforce experience and an eagerness to advance their careers,” Nordquist says. “It’s also a great way to network with other business staff/faculty to see how they pursue providing better opportunities for these populations.”

WSU Everett Management Professor Joseph Scott Gladstone a Native American, has firsthand experience with the program. He first attended the annual meeting as a potential doctoral student in 2003 and is a participating faculty member. Gladstone says experienced professors screen and evaluate conference applicants for their potential success in doctoral programs.

“Every person accepted to attend the recruiting conference has a very high likelihood of success in whatever program they land in,” Gladstone says.

The PhD Project offers continued support, starting with writing instruction in the first year, exam preparation in the second, and dissertation guidance in the third. It also assists with paper submissions, conference presentations, and job-placement as they begin looking for professor positions. Member universities are provided direct access to candidates. The PhD Project even conducts its own graduation celebration.

Membership doesn’t end after landing that professor job.

“When you graduate from the project, you become a faculty member and are expected to mentor future students and new faculty,” Gladstone says. “The project is kind of like the mafia—once you’re in, you’re in for life!”

Now celebrating its 30^th anniversary, the number of underrepresented faculty in business schools has sextupled since the PhD Project’s inception, and the organization has just seen its 1,764^th professor capped. There’s a long way to go, but with the help of the PhD Project and participation from universities like WSU, faculty diversity is steadily spreading through business schools to the benefit of all.

Chuck Munson,
PhD Program Director

Dear friends:

University faculty need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skill set to thrive in their careers. While the WSU PhD program does not directly provide entrepreneurial training to its students, their four- to five-year journey forces them to develop and hone their entrepreneurial skills that will be useful in future faculty careers. These skills include enhanced problem-solving abilities, leadership and team collaboration, adaptability and resilience, opportunity recognition and innovation, and networking and resource management.

College graduates entering PhD programs encounter a number of challenges. They must learn to navigate graduate school coursework and research problems with unclear solutions. Tackling these challenges improves their problem-solving skills significantly.

Graduate students typically collaborate on research assignments, frequently leading such endeavors. In their roles as teaching assistants and instructors, they are often solely responsible for delivering course content in an engaging way. As they go, students pick up excellent leadership and team collaboration experiences.

Learning from failure is an important part of students’ PhD journey and will be a part of their professional careers. From difficulties in coursework, to teaching efforts that don’t “click,” to research project restarts, students must remain resilient and adapt for the next try.

The core of research involves identifying “gaps” in the literature, i.e., opportunities to explore unexplained phenomena. Successful researchers find those and follow up with innovative solutions.

Beginning with their first-year cohort and extending to senior students, faculty, and beyond, PhD students build their professional networks from day one. A huge component of that is attending professional conferences and meeting students and faculty from all around the world. These networks become vital as faculty careers blossom.

Some university faculty provide consulting services, and others even start their own successful companies (e.g., Ed Schweitzer III right here in Pullman). But even faculty who focus only on their professor positions essentially have an entrepreneurial job. The most successful professors create truly unique courses and learning experiences for their students. They produce cutting-edge research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. And they work behind the scenes to improve the educational experience and create extra-curricular opportunities for their students. Faculty have the freedom to shape their work output to follow their priorities and passions. The PhD journey helps them prepare well by developing a plethora of entrepreneurial skills.

Chuck Munson,
PhD Program Director

Dear friends:

This issue of the eDividend is highlighting some of the great outreach that the Carson College of Business engages in globally. However, that cultural and intellectual exchange is a two-way street. When international students and scholars come to Pullman, they bring a wealth of knowledge and international contacts with them. More than 70 percent of our current PhD students are international. And that percentage is unlikely to dip anytime soon, as more than 78 percent of PhD applications for next year are coming from overseas.

While studying abroad can be a great experience for our undergraduate students, they also get exposed right here in Pullman to teaching assistants and instructors from many different countries and cultures. It’s important for students who grew up in this state to hear different accents and to get exposed to people and ideas that may be missing in their respective hometowns. The business world is global, and college graduates should be prepared to fully engage. From my experience, Carson Cougs enjoy hearing about the different ways that business is practiced in other countries.

I’m pleased we are highlighting Cathy Jun, one of our PhD candidates who brings a wealth of multicultural insight to her teaching and research efforts. Though born in New York, she spent a significant part of her early life in South Korea, which helped developed her global perspective.

Our international PhD student connections have opened numerous doors over the years for our Carson faculty. Several students have facilitated access to foreign companies, consumers, and data to use in research studies. (For example, at least three of my own publications have incorporated overseas data obtained via current or former PhD students.) Some of our international PhD graduates who have returned home to work as university professors have hosted our faculty as speakers, visiting professors, and even as external deans. They also recruit future international students for us to send back to Pullman. And among those who join universities in the US, several have very strong connections with scholars from their countries, which has led to numerous coauthoring opportunities for them and for other WSU students and faculty. Communications are so seamless today that nobody thinks twice about having lengthy Zoom meetings with scholars from halfway around the world. Combining virtual meetings with instantaneous emails and unlimited cloud storage for file transfer allows research teams to be as productive as if their offices were right next door.

Our international PhD students and scholars fill a vital shortage of qualified US instructors at WSU and almost every other university in the country. And along the way, they provide diversity, experiences, perspectives, and international connections that enrich us all.

Chuck Munson,
PhD Program Director

Dear friends:

Our student spotlight focuses on Pingping Tang, an operations and management science doctoral student who volunteered her precious time on behalf of fellow students and the local community last spring. After passing three exams to become an IRS-certified tax preparer, Pingping spent every Saturday afternoon for nine weeks volunteering for the WSU VITA program, which provides free tax assistance to students and community members earning below a specified income threshold.

Pingping rather nonchalantly told me that she believes WSU has taught its graduate students not only to work hard on developing research skills but also to take care of others in need and serve the community. In that spirit, she decided to commit to the WSU VITA program to help students struggling with their tax returns. As an international student herself, she is particularly motivated to aid international students. I am awed by such a selfless act from a student going through a challenging PhD program.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed numerous PhD students going above and beyond their expected teaching assistant roles to provide individualized help for struggling undergraduate students. Despite no specific request from their supervising professors, these PhD students will frequently provide one-on-one tutoring outside of regular office hours. I have also seen them respond to student emails at all hours of the night and on weekends. Some TAs have volunteered to provide extra help sessions or office hours prior to big exams. I’ve seen others reach out when a student seems to have “disappeared” from the course.

Not all assistance is course related. Many undergraduate students feel more comfortable opening up to their TAs than to the older, more intimidating professors. I’ve overheard many conversations over the years where our TAs are providing advice on career planning, time management, and more.

Mentorship can be a big part of the PhD student experience. Senior students provide all sorts of guidance to their juniors, ranging from which courses to take, to which faculty to seek out, and how to study for comprehensive exams. Perhaps the biggest impact comes from sharing job market experiences while these senior students obtain faculty positions across the world. These mentorship activities emerge informally, but they provide a critical mechanism for knowledge and PhD culture to be passed through the generations of students moving through the program.

Our doctoral students form a core value of giving back to others, especially via their TA work and mentoring of their younger peers. Once they become faculty and have some extra time, we see these young professors donating their academic talent to their communities in numerous ways, from coaching K-12 math teams, to acting as treasurer for the neighborhood homeowner’s association, and serving on nonprofit boards of directors. Such service commitments arise naturally because the role of a teacher, at any level, is to go the extra mile to help others grow and succeed—one student at a time.

Chuck Munson,
PhD Program Director

Dear friends:

This summer, my family and I are spending time in Busan, South Korea, enjoying the beautiful Gwangalli Beach and other sites. By the way, if you’re ever there on a Saturday night, the drone show is out of this world!

Speaking of drones, I’m pleased to introduce you to the work of Amirhossein Moadab, a doctoral student studying operations and management science. Our feature article describes his efforts to harness the potential of aerial drones to deliver swift assistance to those in need of humanitarian aid after natural disasters or other crises. He’s no stranger to the devastating impact of natural disasters, having experienced severe earthquakes in his home country of Iran when he was a young boy. Moadab is using his industrial engineering background and WSU training in operations and management science to help save lives. He also has a forthcoming research paper in which he proposes a mathematical model geared at enhancing the supply chain network for COVID-19 PCR diagnostic tests.

Moadab is just one example of how Carson doctoral students develop technology and business insights for social good. Another is the work of operations and management science doctoral student Shirin Shahsavand, who is highlighted in the PhD Corner achievements section. She received third place in the communication and political science category of the GPSA Graduate Research Exposition this past spring. Shahsavand is exploring the fast fashion industry and some retailers’ efforts to provide monetary incentives for customers to return used clothing to stores for recycling rather than sending their clothing to the landfill.

Back in Korea, it feels so safe to walk around Korean cities, day or night, which causes me to ponder the rising homelessness, pervasive drug addiction, and other issues that are impacting cities in our nation and world. It’s time for more of us, collectively, to get involved. With donor support and seed funding, I’m confident Carson doctoral students and faculty possess the talent to develop new models that can not only improve business practices but also impact larger humanitarian efforts such as emergency services, sustainable housing, food security, basic health care, and drug rehabilitation.

If we work together, Washington State University can be the leading source of insights for social good through the study of business and power of community.

Chuck Munson,
PhD Program Director

Dear friends,

As we reflect on the first graduating class of The Next Carson Cougs, we are reminded that Carson PhD students play a significant role in their journey. From teaching assistant duties to serving as the sole instructor for courses, our doctoral students impact the undergraduate student learning experience greatly. To support that responsibility, all PhD students take a teaching course and have the opportunity to participate in a number of teaching development activities sponsored at both the college and university levels. And to ensure a quality learning experience, all international teaching assistants must pass an oral English teaching examination before being allowed to teach courses on their own.

An important element in the revised undergraduate curriculum has been the introduction of the Carson Career Amplifier Program designed to enhance career readiness. As a member of the curriculum revision task force at the time, I supported this major new requirement. Employers have been sending a clear message that college graduates from all over the country have been lacking critical “soft skills” that lead to long-term successful professional careers.

While not quite as formalized, our PhD program has similar soft skill requirements. People often think of PhD holders as highly technical individuals with deep knowledge about a particular subject, but that skill set is hardly enough to land a coveted professor job at a university. While technical skills may help get a research paper published, the daily life of a professor is often filled with soft skill activity, from teaching courses to contributing to meetings, writing recommendation letters, chairing committees, advising students, and communicating research results.

A big part of the PhD job market process involves the hiring faculty attempting to determine if the candidate would be a good fit for the department. Will the candidate teach effectively, become an active contributor in service activities, and get along well with students, staff, and faculty? Nobody is interested in hiring new professors who will be locked in their office all day long, no matter what level of research is being produced.

After four to five years of working informally with faculty mentors to build professorial qualities, our PhD students partake in several formal soft-skill development opportunities. First-year students take Research and Professional Development, a colloquium where they learn about preparing an academic vita, being a good college citizen, time management and working with coauthors, university service activities, and interviewing tips, along with several sessions on research and teaching. Every semester, we have each PhD student make a formal research presentation in front of a peer group and receive constructive feedback on presentation skills. The teaching course is usually taken during the second year. Finally, the Carson College has begun offering weekly “Lunch and Learn” sessions covering a wide variety of topics important for university faculty, and the WSU Graduate School offers a series of soft-skill sessions as part of its professional development initiative.

By the end of year five, we believe that most of our students have transformed into well-groomed professionals suited for faculty roles at universities around the world.

Chuck Munson,
PhD Program Director