As corporations seek to hire more people of color, business schools across the nation, unfortunately, continue to lag way behind on diversity numbers and measures. That’s why it is a pretty big deal when Kaleem Caire and Sandy Morales were recently appointed chair and vice chair, respectively, of Edgewood College’s School of Business’s advisory board.
“So many of us are taught early on that our lives are supposed to be of service to others. When we’re doing well there is an expectation that you will be a mentor to those coming up behind you because there are so few of us [people of color,]” Caire tells Madison365. “We also find ourselves being offered roles to be in those positions. But we’re just not in a lot of areas of business that we should be in. We need more of our young people of color to go to business school and we need all people that go to business school to be more socially minded and to understand the social impact that their decision-making has.”
Business schools across the nation have a long way to go in terms of diversity. Based on a survey by Bloomberg Business, only 6 percent of the full-time MBA candidates polled in 2014, for example, identified as black.
“We have to find ways to get more of us into the private sector and into business and into entrepreneurship,” says Caire, the founder and CEO of One City Early Learning Centers, a preschool designed to ensure children are reading-ready by kindergarten and that their parents have the knowledge, tools, and ability to provide for them and lead strong families. “And Stevie Watson and Edgewood College are dedicated to that.”
Watson is the Dean of the School of Business at Edgewood College and his primary goal is to develop socially responsible, ethical leaders, giving students the knowledge, skills and experiences needed to become successful business and community leaders. To have an African-American man and a Latina woman in the key positions of his advisory board means that the Edgewood College School of Business will have connections and inroads to communities of color in Madison that they may not normally have had.
“Edgewood has been on this [diversity] journey for, I’d say, 20 years. I remember when they first hired Pearl Leonard-Rock back in the late ‘90s and created the Diversity Office and trying to be aggressive about it,” Caire says. “They have since moved on to where their incoming freshman class student body last year was about 20 percent students of color. They are starting to see some fruits from their efforts. It feels good to be part of this organization.”
The Edgewood College Business School has 15 full-time and 25 executive adjunct faculty that teach a broad array of courses relevant to the future demands of business and society in terms of ethical leadership, entrepreneurship and sustainability in a global economy. The members of the advisory board provide their broad and expert perspectives on strategic directions for the School of Business.
“As the advisory board we will be assisting the School of Business in their strategy work when it comes to recruiting and retaining students,” Morales tells Madison365. “I think that is part of the challenge; not only getting students in but getting them to stay. We also want to be building relationships with the community so they will see Edgewood College as an option for students in high school or as a feeder system from Madison College.
“Seeing Edgewood College’s Business School as an opportunity for any student in this community to enroll in is important,” she adds. “Also, we want to be working with the rest of the advisory committee that represents diverse businesses in our area to get more of the surrounding workforce to come back to Edgewood College to get their MBA (Master of Business Administration) and to further advance in their companies.”
There are 15 total people on the Edgewood College School of Business’s advisory board from all walks of business life. These professionals provide a diverse networking community to help Edgewood College business students and alumni join stimulating conversations with some of Madison’s most innovative leaders.
“This advisory board is responsible for making sure that the students are being exposed to real-life situations like social entrepreneurship and modern ways that people are doing business today,” Morales says.
Morales, the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County, has a business degree from Marquette University and has been greatly involved in business in the Madison community, especially the Latino Professionals Association and the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County.
“I think we need more students – especially students of color – who should consider a formal education in business,” Morales says. “I think it’s a great opportunity. Too many times we have people who are creative and have just wonderful ideas, but you need the business skills to figure out how this idea is going to grow and be accessible to others. Essentially, you are building sustainability for yourself.”
Businesses and entrepreneurship are the keys to having a thriving community, Morales says.
“Business skills are applicable to anything whether it’s an actual formal business, a small business, a non-profit organization like Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Latino Professionals Association or the Latino Chamber of Commerce,” she says. “Business skills are needed in so many different areas as well as financial planning and projecting to the future. There is a lot of goal setting involved in any kind of organization that you are trying to grow or any idea that you are trying to put out there.”
Caire believes that the Edgewood College Business School has a chance to do something very unique.
“UW-Madison, where I went to business school and am still going to complete there, serves the world. They are an international brand for higher education,” Caire says. “Edgewood provides a very good MBA program and in my opinion can be the regional driver and supporter of business in this region in southern Wisconsin. We need to start being aggressive about positioning ourselves that way.
“We really want to bolster the MBA program at Edgewood, driving up the enrollment, supporting the development of the faculty and students. That will be primary goal number one,” he adds. “Number 2, we really want to promote the Business School in general – what they do and who they do it with. We really want to promote the brand of the Edgewood Business School. The third thing we want to do is to really establish partnerships with local small, medium, and large businesses who can send their employees there for MBAs but also providing executive education for businesses in Madison.”
