Building Alverno’s EdD Program
Stepping in as director in 2022, Bonds has developed an established program into one that is truly remarkable. Alverno began its EdD program in January of 2020 with several tracks, including Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Higher Educational Leadership, and K12 Leadership, to which a superintendent track can be added. In late 2023, Forbes Advisor named Alverno College’s EdD program as one of the “Top Ten Best Educational Leadership Doctoral Programs” in the United States. Desiree H. Pointer Mace—professor of Education, dean of the School of Professional Studies, and director of Graduate Education Programs at Alverno—is excited about attaining that distinction with Bonds at the program’s helm.
Pointer Mace says that people see Bonds as an “inspiring exemplar” who has “confronted and dismantled structural barriers.” Sharyn L. Warren, associate professor of Business and chair of the Business and Communication Department at Alverno, appreciates that the program continues to grow because Bonds “knows how to build relationships as well as how to develop the curriculum.” Warren credits Bonds’ “innovative and creative” nature, along with her collaborative style, for making the doctoral program at Alverno “even more competitive” and receiving national recognition. Bonds is proud to lead this program, and she attributes the program’s success to the teamwork of all involved.
In the second year of the EdD program, Alverno added an innovative ABD track which offers a fresh chance for graduate students to complete their studies. Since the ABD students have already completed coursework elsewhere, they take fewer courses at Alverno and immediately begin working on their dissertations from the start of their enrollment.
Many students who are members of groups under-represented in academia—such as Black and Indigenous people and other people of color—can face unique challenges in completing their doctoral studies at some primarily white institutions (PWIs). Tiffany Tardy, president and C.E.O. of PEARLS for Teen Girls in Milwaukee, was one such student; she says that she had a difficult experience at a previous institution which caused her to give up on writing her dissertation. Warren, who was the first student enrolled in Alverno’s ABD program—as well as the first to complete it—states that she, too, “had met many challenges during the years on the journey” since beginning her doctoral studies in 2008. She had almost given up before Bonds chaired her dissertation committee, and she now appreciates her “dual understanding” of Bonds’ strengths, from both student and colleague perspectives.
Bonds herself had a similar experience to Tardy’s and Warren’s. She notes that her dissertation chair made her doctoral journey difficult, and she points out that many people from marginalized backgrounds have had the same experience in higher education. She notes that doctoral-level research and analysis is challenging enough without an advisor making the work even more difficult. The goal at Alverno is to take a different path by helping and partnering with students. The faculty in Alverno’s EdD program are dedicated to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals by ensuring that students have access rather than facing unnecessary obstacles. Bonds emphasizes that advisors are recognizing their own biases to effectively achieve DEI goals and support all students. For advisors to be effective mentors, they need to understand their own privilege and how it interacts with the experiences of marginalized individuals within their institutions.
One example of the ways Bonds has strengthened Alverno’s EdD program is by intentionally recruiting dissertation chairs who reflect the demographics of Alverno’s students. Pointer Mace reports that, unlike many institutions of higher education, Alverno’s student demographics—both undergraduate and graduate—mirror the demographics in the United States as a whole.
Darius Kirk, professor of education at Oral Roberts University, is one such person; Bonds recruited him to be a dissertation advisor at a time when he was a school district superintendent and an adjunct in higher education, as well. As a Black man, he agreed to take on this new challenge because he wants to reciprocate the investment Bonds made in him. Kirk appreciates being in a position to mentor Black male advisees in particular.
Building Relationships
Bonds is committed to building relationships. Tardy highlights this aspect of Bonds’ approach; she observes that she connected with all of the faculty at Alverno, but she felt particularly seen by the way Bonds “showed up” for her after she joined Alverno’s ABD track in January of 2022. Tardy felt incredibly grateful for Bonds’ calm and welcoming attitude, leading Tardy to feel a “new sense of motivation and commitment” towards her doctoral studies. Even within Alverno’s supportive environment, however, Tardy still experienced what is commonly called “imposter syndrome.” She went through some big challenges in her personal life during her doctoral studies, as well. Bonds—who Tardy calls a “phenomenal human being”—continued to check in without judgement, support her, and pivot to new plans for completion of her degree. Likewise, Bonds was a member of Kirk’s dissertation committee when his chair bowed out after he had defended his proposal. Even though Bonds already had a full load at the time, she stepped up to chair his committee, and Kirk ultimately graduated on time.
Bonds has a gift for making her students felt seen. Tardy appreciates the ways that Bonds valued her work and wanted to share it with others. Tardy researches the experiences of Black women in higher education, and she is glad to now be validated instead of questioned in her work. Over the years, Bonds has asked to share a portion of Tardy’s dissertation with her students, and she has asked Tardy to return to campus to speak about her work. Kirk says that Bonds “cares relentlessly,” and he notes that her goal is to see all of the people around her fulfill their dreams and aspirations.
Bonds has developed effective structures in her largely asynchronous classes to help students feel connected to her, the class, and one other. One way that Bonds and the other instructors accomplish this goal is through a weekly pattern of communication. To begin the week, she sends her students a video “Monday Message” to give a preview of the week’s work. Throughout the week, she offers feedback on their submissions from the previous week. On Fridays, her video covers “Exemplars of Diverse Excellence”—with permission from the students she wants to highlight, she shares a few examples of ways that students admirably fulfilled an assignment. Bonds remarks that many instructors in the program have taken up these practices. Supportive, community-building approaches like these contribute to the program’s remarkable success.
Bonds facilitates relationships among the people in her community. For example, when Tardy needed participants for her study, Bonds asked people in her network to participate. Now Tardy is one of the people Bonds asks to participate in current students’ research. Pointer Mace highlights Bonds’ “real strengths in providing engaging and interdependent learning experiences.” Another way that Bonds builds interdependence among students is by hosting events during the residency in their final term. Bonds creates inclusive gathering practices; “people are welcomed into a space that is physically beautiful and contains messages of support and welcome.”
“Students say they did not expect the online program to feel like a family,” Pointer Mace says, adding that this feeling stems from Bonds and all of her strengths as a leader. Bonds states that she wants students to feel a “sense of belonging.”
Bonds also makes sure that students in the EdD program connect with their advisors “from day one,” pointing out that providing support is a “big deal” for all advisors at Alverno. In addition to holding regular office hours, each dissertation advisor meets with their students every other week throughout their time at Alverno.
Experienced Educator
Bonds continues to build the doctoral program by drawing on her years of experience as an educator. Prior to joining the faculty at Alverno, Bonds worked in the Milwaukee Public Schools system, which is the largest district in Wisconsin. In 2010, the state made major changes in policies for educator retirements which led to about 1,500 teachers in the Milwaukee district leaving their positions. New in her role as the district’s mentoring and induction director, Bonds had the responsibility of training and mentoring those who were hired after the exodus. Bonds focused on supporting the new teachers, and her efforts over the next eight years paid off: only 300 teachers left their positions in 2018, marking a return to an average turnover rate.
Pointer Mace appreciates the many strengths that Bonds brings to her work as director of the EdD program, especially the clarity of her intention to support students and faculty alike. In her own doctoral research, Bonds studied ongoing teacher learning, and she applies that research to working with her colleagues in the EdD program, who are all experienced faculty members. For one example, Warren remarks that Bonds meets with Alverno’s dissertation advisors every two weeks to offer tips and discuss best practices for working with their students. Bonds notes that it is important to her to not only support doctoral students by chairing dissertation committees herself but to support the other advisors in their work with students, as well. Bonds says being a source of “mentoring and support is who God has called me to be.”
Bonds also offers students opportunities to connect with the program beyond their coursework. Pointer Mace points to innovations such as town hall meetings that help students feel “uniquely connected to Alverno.” These town halls explain the doctoral process to the students; this year, Bonds has added a family meeting to the event. She points out that a student’s family may not understand that the student may be less available for the next two or two-and-a-half years. Making the program’s demands transparent is just another way that Bonds promotes inclusion for students.
Educational Leadership and Influence
Bonds’ influence ripples out through the people she has mentored. Tardy wants to do all she can to emulate Bonds’ approaches to collaborating with people. Pointer Mace admires Bonds’ “calm brilliance,” which she calls a “balm” for both faculty and students. She is “good at taking a pause and making sure people are heard”; Pointer Mace has learned this strategy from her. Overall, Pointer Mace remarks, “She makes me a better teacher.” Kirk notes that, like many great leaders, Bonds sees potential in people and provides support to help get them “where they should be—she cultivated that in me.” Now, Kirk strives to emulate Bonds’ example of leadership and mentorship when working with his own students. He is grateful that she saw the potential in him to advise students through the “arduous” dissertation process when he had not yet seen that potential in himself. Inspired by Bonds’ example, he recently had a conversation with his own provost about the advantages of intentionally developing a “pipeline of diverse leaders who have aspirations to be chair, dean, and beyond.” Kirk observes that building this type of “strong bench” would be “good for the organizational health of any institution.” As a committed and inspiring leader, Bonds is making positive and effective changes at Alverno that are, in turn, bringing about parallel changes at other institutions and in the community at large.
