Companies have made a concerted effort in the past decade to increase their recruitment of minority MBAs. But the business schools where those MBAs get their degrees still have a surprisingly small percentage of minority professors. That's where the PhD Project comes in.

The PhD Project was started in 1994 by the KPMG Foundation (other sponsors include a coalition of corporations and academic institutions that have raised more that $6 million.) The goal: to increase the diversity of business school faculty by attracting African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Native Americans to business doctoral programs and providing support during the long road to the PhD.

As of June 1999, there were only 396 minority business school faculty members in the United States - an absurdly small number that represents less than 5 percent of all business school professors in the United States.

The PhD Project is an aggressive effort to increase the numbers of minority b-school professors in the U.S. The organization targets both current MBAs and graduates who are interested in getting their PhD and teaching in a business school program. Candidates who look promising are invited to an annual conference, which explains the PhD Project, the benefits of a PhD, and the process of getting a PhD, and debunks commonly held myths about PhD programs. Representatives of leading corporations and top business schools also attend to encourage attendees to get the PhD degree and to provide information on individual doctoral programs.

So far, the PhD program has apparently made a difference. Of the 1997 conference attendees, 21 entered a doctoral program in 1998. Since the beginning of the Project, the percentage of minorities entering business PhD programs has increased 42 percent, and 389 minorities are currently enrolled in business PhD programs.

Vault.com spoke to Ana Leonard, a Hispanic woman, who was encouraged to enter a PhD program through the Project. Previously, Leonard had worked at KPMG and IBM. "It was a two-edged sword. It was exciting and wonderful, but lonely and difficult. There were very few women, and very few Hispanic Americans. I had no mentor." ~ Leonard had always thought that she would enjoy teaching, she just wasn't sure where to begin. "I didn't have anyone to talk to about what it would be like going back," she says. Then, in the summer of 1995, she saw a tiny advertisement for the PhD Project in The New York Times and took it as a sign. She contacted the organization, filled out an application and went to the annual conference.

"As much as probably anything in my life, that conference changed my life," says Leonard.

While the project still has a long way to go before the presence of minority business professors is felt, many minorities already entered in the program can be seen standing in front of the classroom as teaching or research assistants. Leonard is now in her fourth year as a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati (a doctoral typically takes five years to complete), and is already teaching and making an impact on her students. "The reason I wanted to go back was not only for my satisfaction and professional accomplishment, but that there would be someone to facilitate the process for them. For every class I teach, people come up to me for advice. The really funny thing is that it really isn't just a minority thing. I?ve had all types of people come to my office for advice."

Leonard believes that it will take time before the impact of the PhD Project will be felt in the work place. "I think the impact will be significant. If you take the people that I have been in contact with and multiply that by a hundred, then that?s a couple hundred in the pipeline. That's a couple hundred that are networking with each other. Companies that recruit those immediately have access to those networks."

Leonard says that the work she's doing will not only help minorities, but others will feel the impact of the program, as well. "I'm helping these companies develop a more qualified background to choose from, both by being a role model, but also the fact that I'm in front of a classroom of mostly Caucasians. It better prepares them to work in a more diverse world. They'll think twice about making that initial quick judgment."