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Doing the Work that Makes a Difference - Dr. Jesse Ford

Title: Assistant Professor, Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Tenured: No
Age: 36
Education: B.A. in History from Coastal Carolina University, and a certificate in Program Evaluation from Florida State University; M.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of South Carolina; Ph.D. in Higher Education from Florida State University
Career mentors: Dr. Tamara Bertrand Jones, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Dr. Brian McGowan, American University; Dr. Derrick Brooms, Morehouse College; Dr. Erik Hines, George Mason University; Dr. Holt Wilson, UNC Greensboro; Dr. Cameron C. Beatty, Florida State University; Dr. Jennifer L. Bloom, Florida Atlantic University
Words of wisdom/advice for new faculty: “Focus on the work that truly matters to you, approach it with care, and remain humble—everything else will fall intoDr. Jesse FordDr. Jesse Ford place.”


On the cusp of graduation at Coastal Carolina University, Dr. Jesse Ford thought he had done pretty good for himself when he secured a job offer at Waffle House making $45,000 a year.

“That was big money for your boy because I wasn’t making no money,” says Ford, who is now an assistant professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

But before Ford could accept the Waffle House job, his Greek Life advisor sat him down and told him: “No, you’re not doing that. You’re going back to school to get a masters.”

“And the next day, he sat me down and made me apply for graduate schools and graduate programs,” recounts Ford. His advisor even helped pay some of the application fees.

“It really was just a brother sitting me down, like, ‘No, you go back to school because you have this interest,’” Ford says of the curiosity he had then about why so many fellow young Black men on campus were not graduating. “‘You want to know more.’”

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