WS Chronicle

The PhD Project, an award-winning program to create a more diverse corporate America, has announced that Project participant M. Dee Guillory has successfully defended her dissertation, “Perceived Brand Age and Its Influence on Choice.”

She received her Ph.D. in marketing from Georgia State University and has accepted a faculty position at Winston-Salem State University.
Guillory is one of only 86 female African American marketing business school professors in the U.S., most of whom have become professors since The PhD Project was created in 1994.

The Project’s vision is to diversify corporate America by increasing the number of minority business professors (African American, Hispanic American and Native American) by attracting more minority students to study business. The nonprofit was founded in 1994 by the KPMG Foundation. It recruits minority professionals from business into doctoral programs in all business disciplines. Since its inception, The PhD Project has been responsible for the increase in the number of minority business professors from 294 to 1,176.

Dr. Guillory began her Ph.D. journey by attending the 1998 November PhD Project Conference. Each year, highly qualified professionals who are considering leaving their careers to enter doctoral programs in business are invited to The PhD Project Conference where they hear from deans, professors and current minority doctoral students about the benefits of pursuing a business Ph.D.

Conference participants are provided with the tools and resources they need for the application/admission process to doctoral programs. Once they enter a program, every minority business doctoral student in an AACSB accredited U.S. business school becomes a member of one of The Project’s five (accounting, finance, information systems, marketing and management) Doctoral Student Associations (DSAs).

“Dr. Guillory has succeeded in the very difficult endeavor of becoming a business school professor,” said Bernard J. Milano, president of The PhD Project and president of the KPMG Foundation, founder and lead funder of the program. “She has demonstrated dedication, hard work and intelligence in joining the rapidly growing ranks of minorities choosing to influence the next generation of business leaders as college professors. The PhD Project takes great pride in her achievement and looks forward to following her success throughout her career.”