Lehigh congratulates the PhD Project

The PhD Project, an organization that recruits minority business professionals into university doctoral programs across business disciplines, has been chosen by The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics as one of the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education.

The PhD project—Lehigh is an institutional member—is now included in the Bright Spots’ national online catalog.

Founded by the KPMG Foundation in 1994, the project encourages minority business professionals to become university business school professors, where they can inspire minority students to study business, serve as mentors to the next generation of business leaders and better prepare all students to live and work in the country’s diverse society.

Since its inception, the project has been responsible for quadrupling the number of minority business professors, from 294 to 1,292.

Bernard J. Milano, a panelist in last month’s impact symposium hosted by Lehigh’s College of Business and Economics, is president of the KPMG Foundation, KPMG Disaster Relief Fund and the PhD Project. The daylong symposium aimed to foster conversations about workplace diversity and to put leaders on a path to better management of tomorrow’s workforce.

“Lehigh University, as an institutional member of the KPMG PhD Project, extends it congratulations to the PhD Project for the White House recognition,” said Henry Odi, vice president for academic diversity at Lehigh. “The Office of Academic Diversity at Lehigh University continues to collaborate with Mr. Milano and the KPMG PHD Project in variety of initiatives to sustain and advance diversity and inclusion at Lehigh University.”

The White House Initiative, established in 1990 to address the education disparities faced by the Hispanic community, seeks to leverage the Bright Spots to encourage collaboration between stakeholders focused on similar issues in sharing data-driven approaches, promising practices, peer advice, and effective partnerships, ultimately resulting in increased support for the educational attainment of the Hispanic community.

The announcement was made last month at the launch of Hispanic Heritage Month and in honor of the Initiative’s 25th anniversary in Washington, D.C.
“There has been notable progress in Hispanic educational achievement, and it is due to the efforts of these Bright Spots in Hispanic Education, programs and organizations working throughout the country to help Hispanic students reach their full potential," said Alejandra Ceja, Executive Director of the Initiative.

To learn more about the Initiative and to view the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education national online catalog visit www.ed.gov/HispanicInitiative.