The PhD Project Announces 2019 Inductees to Hall of Fame

MONTVALE, N.J., Sept. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The PhD Project, an award-winning program to create a more diverse corporate America by diversifying business school faculty, has announced the 2019 inductees into The PhD Project Hall of Fame. They are: Jorge Pérez, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Success, University of Tennessee System; Craig A. Sisneros, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Accounting, Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University; and Ian O. Williamson, Ph.D., Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Victoria Business School at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).

The PhD Project established the Hall of Fame in 2011 to recognize a select few who have inspired many. These individuals have sustained an unwavering commitment to The PhD Project's mission and their positive leadership has resulted in significant encouragement and impact within The Project's network of minority business doctoral students and faculty.

"We are pleased to present the 2019 inductees to The PhD Project Hall of Fame. Since our inception, these individuals have served The Project as presenters, mentors and advisors," said Bernard J. Milano, President of The PhD Project and the KPMG Foundation, the founder, lead funder and administrator of The Project. "They have put forth great effort to create diversity in academia and ultimately, the business world."

Dr. Jorge Pérez, a native of Cuba, is associate vice president for academic affairs and student success at the University of Tennessee System in Knoxville. He holds a bachelor's degree in English, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in information systems from Florida State University. Dr. Pérez was previously vice provost and professor of information systems at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. He was the recipient of a prestigious American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship in 2013, spending that academic year at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Informing Science Institute, and served on the boards of the Latin American Association and the Atlanta Electronic Commerce Forum. Dr. Pérez has industry experience as a systems analyst, web developer, and consultant, and has taught e-business, web development, systems analysis and design, data communications, and quantitative methods for business decisions. Digital literacy is the focus of his current research.

Dr. Craig A. Sisneros is an assistant professor in the School of Accounting for the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University after holding visiting and/or assistant professor positions at University of Utah, Wichita State University, and University of Colorado Denver. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy (summa cum laude) from Metropolitan State College of Denver and a Ph.D. in Accountancy (Finance minor) from Arizona State University. Dr. Sisneros serves as a planning committee member for The PhD Project, as faculty advisor for Beta Alpha Psi- Chi Chapter at Oklahoma State, and as a member of the School of Accounting Ph.D. Program Committee among other activities. Past service positions include Faculty Advisor for The PhD Project Accounting Doctoral Students Association, Beta Alpha Psi- Theta Sigma Chapter where he was named Outstanding Faculty Advisor in 2017, co-chair of the Minority Affairs Committee at CU Denver, treasurer and chair of the Education Committee for the Wichita Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and executive director for the NABA Accounting Career Awareness Program at Wichita State.

Dr. Ian O. Williamson is the Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Victoria Business School at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). Prior to joining Victoria University of Wellington he served on the faculties of the Melbourne Business School (Australia), Rutgers Business School (USA), the Zurich Institute of Business Education (Switzerland), the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and Institut Teknologi Bandung (Indonesia). He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) and a bachelor's degree in business from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio USA).  Williamson is a past recipient of the Academy of Management (AOM) Education Division best paper award for his research on high performing teams and the AOM Human Resource Division best paper award for his research on the effect of employee mobility on firm performance.  He is a recipient of the AOM Best Practices Mentoring Award for his role as the founding President of the Management Faculty of Color Association (MFCA).  Williamson is also a recipient of the AOM Ralph Alexander Best Dissertation Award for his research examining the top management team (TMT) selection decisions of Fortune 500 firms.  He also received the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award. 

The PhD Project, which was founded by the KPMG Foundation in 1994 and became a separate 501(c)(3) in 2005, recruits Black/African-American, Latinx/Hispanic-American and Native American students and professionals into doctoral programs in all business disciplines. Since its inception, The PhD Project has been responsible for the increase in the number of minorities earning a business Ph.D. from 294 to 1,550, of whom 1,327 are teaching in U.S. colleges and universities. Further, 277 minorities are currently enrolled in doctoral programs, and will take a place at the front of the classroom over the next few years. The Project attacks the root cause of minority under-representation in corporate jobs: historically, very few minority college students study business as an entrée to a corporate career.  Diversifying the faculty attracts more minorities to study business and better prepares all students to function in a diverse workforce.

The PhD Project 2019 Hall of Fame's inductees will be honored at the organization's annual conference in November. A new class of inductees is selected annually, with supporters of The PhD Project and the public invited to submit nominations for each year's class. 

The PhD Project has received ongoing support from its sponsoring companies, participating universities, individuals and organizations. The founding organizations, in addition to the KPMG Foundation, are the Graduate Management Admission Council and AACSB International. Other financial sponsors of  The Project  include: AICPA Foundation, DiversityInc, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP, American Marketing Association, John Deere Foundation,  California State University System, Lincoln Financial Group, Academy of Management, American Accounting Association, City University of New York System, Aerotek, NASBA, Thrivent Financial, American Express Foundation, Fidelity Investments, Bentley University, LinkedIn, Annette L. Nazareth and Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., New York Life, IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) and over 300 Participating Universities.

For more information on The PhD Project, visit: http://www.phdproject.org or contact Lisa King at 646-234-5080 or [email protected]. Visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thephdproject; Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ThePhDProject.

SOURCE The PhD Project

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