Something I really liked about my doctoral program was that it had a cohort design. There were 15 of us in the “learning community” and unlike most doctorate programs that focus on preparing people for careers in academia, this program was designed to advance the careers of working professionals in a variety of fields and examined a broad range of real problems in the workplace.
My cohort was diverse in gender, age, race, and faith, with people holding positions in management, public administration, human resources, project management, health care, the arts, diversity and inclusion, higher education, law enforcement, and consulting. We all learned from each other as much as we did from books and lectures.
Here’s a good case in point. Recently, two members of the cohort, Neil Bauer, a White police sergeant in Woodbury, Minnesota and Chris Taylor, a Black executive at the Minnesota History Center, paired up to create a transformative learning experience designed to address unconscious bias in policing. This requires getting people out of their comfort zone so they can become more aware and are able to explore their own unconscious bias. Here’s a news story on the brilliant project my friends Chris and Neil put together. Great job, guys!
Hello, I'm Lisa Meyer 