JBHE: Latest News for 8/19/10

Six New African-American Doctoral Students in Accounting Receive KPMG Foundation Scholarships

Historically, African Americans have been hard to find in the accounting profession. This shortfall is undoubtedly due in large part to racism. Corporations and well-to-do white Americans were unwilling to trust their financial affairs to a black accountant. So African Americans, who were able to pursue higher education, turned to fields other than accounting where greater opportunities existed.

Since there have been very few black accountants, there also have been very few black faculty members teaching accounting at the nation’s business schools. To address this problem, since 1994 the KPMG Foundation has been providing scholarships to black and other minority students who are pursuing Ph.D.s in accounting. Since 1994, 288 minority students have received scholarship grants and 183 recipients are currently teaching at business schools.

This year, the KPMG Foundation awarded $10,000 scholarship grants to 47 individuals. Of the 47 scholarships, 12 went to new doctoral students. Of these 12, six are African Americans:

• Marquita Barnes, a graduate of Howard University, has entered the doctoral program in accounting at Georgia State University.

• Kayla Booker is studying for a Ph.D. in accounting at Jackson State University in Mississippi. She also completed her undergraduate degree at Jackson State.

• Marcus Brooks is a graduate of Texas State University in San Marcos. He has entered the doctoral program in accounting at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

• Willie Reddie is in the Ph.D. program in accounting at Syracuse University. He is a graduate of California State University and did graduate work at the University of Illinois.

• Joseph Reid is entering the accounting Ph.D. program at the University of Memphis this fall. He is a graduate of Winston-Salem State University and did graduate work at Wake Forest University.

• Chanta Thomas is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and did graduate study at the University of Missouri. This fall she is entering the Ph.D. program in accounting at Southern Illinois University.