San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to aid in recruitment of Native American Ph.D.s

The PhD Project, an award-winning program to inspire a new generation of diverse business leaders, today announced that the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has contributed $10,000 to help underwrite the delivery of a Native American Recruitment and sustainability program. The program’s goal is to attract and encourage more Native Americans to become business school faculty, a field where they are severely under- represented.

“While The PhD Project has been successful in changing the landscape of Native American Academic inclusion, specifically in obtaining business degrees, there is much more work to be done in this area,” said Bernard J. Milano, President of The PhD Project and KPMG Foundation, the founder, administrator and lead Sponsor of the program. “With the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and other prominent organization’s commitments, we hope to significantly transform this landscape”

The PhD Project was created in 1994 to address the severe under-representation of African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans in management by diversifying the front of the classroom-the business school faculty. One of the underrepresented communities that historically have been left out of the pipeline for a career path in academia is Native Americans.  Despite the enormous challenges in reaching the Native population, there has been some success: in 1996, there were only three Native American business professors in the entire country. Today, there are 45.

Since its inception, The PhD Project has been providing programming that focuses on attracting and encouraging these underrepresented minorities to earn doctorates and become business professors, essentially marketing academia as a career path. In addition to The Project’s strategic on-going communication outreach to Native American communities, with this commitment from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, they plan to increase their efforts by creating a “pipeline” of information and support to university and college Tribal Advisors across the nation as well as Education Directors at various Tribal Nations. 

When The PhD Project was created, there were only 294 doctorally qualified African-American, Hispanic American or Native American business professors in all U.S. business schools. Today, there are 1,344 minority business professors. Further, 278 minorities are currently enrolled in doctoral programs, and will take a place at the front of the classroom over the next few years.

The PhD Project has received ongoing support from its sponsoring companies, participating universities and organizations, and supply alliance members. Its founding organizations in addition to the KPMG Foundation, are the Graduate Management Admission Council, Citi Foundation, AACSB International. The leading corporations, foundations and associations funding it include:  300+ Participating Universities, AICPA Foundation, DiversityInc, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP, Rockwell Collins, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., American Marketing Association, John Deere Foundation,  CIGNA, Edison International (on behalf of the California State University System), Lincoln Financial Group, Aerotek/ TEKsystems (operating companies of Allegis Group), American Accounting Association, The Hershey Company, Academy of Management, NASBA, OCWEN and Thrivent Financial.

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians is a federally recognized American Indian tribe located near the city of Highland, Calif. San Manuel is one of several clans of Serrano Indians, who are the indigenous people of the San Bernardino highlands, passes, valleys, mountains and high deserts who share a common language and culture. The San Manuel reservation was established in 1891 and recognized as a sovereign nation with the right of self-government. Since time immemorial, the San Manuel tribal community has endured change and hardship. Over time, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has made progress toward becoming a self-sufficient tribal government with an established economic and social outlook. San Manuel is active in supporting projects in neighboring communities. Nearby cities and towns receive support from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in the way of monetary donations for cultural, social, and economic projects to benefit the common good of the communities in which they live and work.

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