The University of Colorado business schools at Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs have been working together on an initiative called the CU Diverse Doctorates in Business (DDB) program.

The goal of the program is to increase the diversity of business school professors by encouraging more of our underrepresented undergraduate students and alumni across the CU System to pursue a PhD in a business discipline and ultimately become business school professors.

Many of our racially and ethnically diverse students and alumni from CU Denver are also first generation college students aiming to make a better economic life for themselves and their families through jobs in industry or government. 

Yet getting a PhD and becoming a business school professor can offer things that might be particularly appealing to those students, such as engagement with the business community, opportunities to have impact in business and society, a relatively robust academic job market, and high compensation relative to other academic fields. Moreover, most Ph.D. programs cover tuition of students.

In order to engage promising diverse students and alumni who are curious about what a career as a business professor would be like, the CU DDB program held an exciting event over zoom on Nov. 13, 2020, which involved faculty, students, and alumni from all of the CU campuses.

Because research is a significant component of a career as a business school faculty, the event featured academic research presented by faculty members from the CU campuses. The hope is that the DDB program will help create a community for undergraduate students and alumni from diverse backgrounds and experiences who can benefit from exposure to doctoral education and academic career possibilities.