Ph.D.O.N.E!! A moment of gratitude for a 30-year adventure.

December 10th is always an important day of reflection for me, because it is the date when I successfully defending my dissertation.

In 2002, about 3200 other people earned PhDs in psychology (according to APA), 67% of which were women, and 6% of which were Black. That means less than 200 African American people (including me) earned psychology Ph.D.s in the whole country in that same year. (https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2004/04/2002phd)

"D.E.I." in its boogey-man, scapegoat, targeted witch hunt {P*2025} version did not get me into, through or beyond a Ph.D. degree. But three letters, which came from a genuine, earnest commitment to these underlying principles of diversity, equity and inclusion with academic rigor and innovation, got me there and have brought me here.

Those three letters are: Y.E.S. ==> Ph.D.

Dr. Robert Sellers said "yes" to my request for guidance and support. I first met Dr. Sellers during my second (sophomore) year at UVA as a newly declared psych major. I told him about my hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology or Organizational Behavior. He welcomed me into his research laboratory of brilliant scholars examining African American racial identity. I knew that I wanted to pursue this path, and I had the beauty of representation and the generosity of mentorship to help me along the way. He was not my official advisor. But there was a very clear agenda. To be our best, and to do our best, in producing scholarship that could change the world. Robert immediately connected me with faculty and grad students at U Michigan, and they helped sponsor me in a summer research program. By the time my graduate school admissions process came around, my heart was already fully committed to U of M. As a matter of fact, I declined a couple of campus visits for accepted students (including Harvard Business School, much to their shock-- LOL!), because I already KNEW I was going to Michigan!! (As fate would have it, I did join HBS as a faculty member a few years later. I guess that chapter was meant to be, after all).

Many prolific teachers helped me to bridge UVA undergrad and UMich grad school, including Stephanie Rowley @J Nicole Shelton Tabbye Chavous Deanna Y. Cooke, Ph.D. Mia Smith Bynum, PhD Stacy Blake-Beard Erica Stovall-White Jacqueline Mattis Ruby L Beale Martha Maznevski . They all provided sage advice, encouragement and psychologically safe, culturally rich learning environments -- things that you can't legislate or mandate. They come from within, and they travel between. We were grant and fellowship-funded, and therefore well-resourced, which always helps when it comes to conference funding and basic necessities like rent and food. Specialized programs help, but the heart of my growth and development resides in the high quality connections that we built. Not a single DEI window-dressing program can even approximate, much less reproduce the bonds that we formulated.

To my unusually great fortune, Dr. Robert Sellers returned to his alma mater, U of M, as a tenured professor during my second year in grad school, and I began working with him again. I'll always remember how excited I was when I learned that he was joining the faculty. I would be able to continue my research on African American racial identity in an informed, affirming laboratory. While I was there, countless students and faculty inspired me to dream big and plan for manifestation. We coached, we lamented, we pontificated, we karaoked!

But yet another tremendous blessing was awaiting me! Dr. Jane Dutton welcomed me to share one of papers from a doctoral seminar, in which I'd mapped out the project I wanted to pursue for my dissertation. I was so nervous! Jane oriented me to the business school professoriate and the study of positive identities in work organizations. Her feedback was honest, illuminating and aspirational. She had high standards, and she signaled from the onset that she believed I would and could meet them, even when I wasn't sure how I'd ever connect my "knowing" to my speaking and writing. When I asked Jane and Rob to co-chair my dissertation committee, they both said "YES."

Jane and Rob are both legends in their respective fields. It would take years to review their inspired bodies of work and accompanying commendations. I'm not sure who I would be or how I would show up as a critical thinker aligned with humanity and justice, were it not for Rob and Jane's lasting influence on me. They taught conceptual precision -- there were no sloppy words or sloppy reasoning. There was nothing fuzzy about social science. It makes the opaque more transparent, the vague more specific, and the implicit more explicit.

I never sought to be an agitator; I was raised to follow the rules, color in the lines, and show up poised and polished, demonstrating respect for self, authority and institutions. In fact, I thought I was choosing a pretty boring and nerdy career. The professor. What's so risky about that? (Besides publish or perish, who else really cares?) At least, that's what I thought.

At the time, I knew I was undertaking work that was unpopular. My data collection travesties testified to that. But I believed, and I witnessed how my work on identity and authenticity in diverse work settings moved from the fringes, margins. back burners, and underground into the mainstream headlines, books and keynotes by a host of scholars and practitioners interested in workforce engagement and performance. We, alongside many overnight DEI sensations, went from being out of style, to en vogue, to in demand.

And now, we are on the brink of a period for which I was not prepared as a Gen X'er, indoctrinated with the myth of meritocracy. How could people who are simply collecting and reporting data, and offering advice based on the findings, find ourselves at odds, in cultural exile, and politically endangered?

The pen has never been more powerful. I rise to meet each day, closer to 2025, with more trepidation than I faced in the days leading up to Y2K. I fight against the same despair that tried to consume me when company after company refused to support my research. But I know in my heart that my mentors, my guides, my sponsors, my trailblazers, my ancestors... they bravely stepped up and carried the torch forward with dignity, self-respect and concern for others' lives and livelihoods.

And because each of them said YES, I, too, will carry on. In gratitude.

Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D.

@elle_michelle_poetry

The Alignment Quest Enterprise