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Advanced Degrees Help Fulfill Dreams

Gragg takes doctorate as he moves into leader's position at Eastern Michigan University

The U.S. Department of Labor states in plain language the benefits of advanced degrees to people in the job market. The introduction to a chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics points out the following: data indicate earnings are higher and the unemployment rate is lower for people who have high levels of education.

For people such as Derrick Gragg, that description barely scratches the surface of their desire for higher education. For people such as Gragg, earning multiple advanced degrees means dreams fulfilled. They are accomplishments made in tribute to a mother who modeled the discipline and drive to succeed, earning three advanced degrees of her own.

Gragg, 36, left his position as deputy athletic director at the University of Arkansas this spring to take the top post in the athletic department at Eastern Michigan University, a Division I school in Ypsilanti.

As a student-athlete at Vanderbilt University, Gragg earned a bachelor's degree in human development in 1992. He worked as director of student life at Vanderbilt before moving on to the University of Missouri as director of compliance for the athletic department and the University of Michigan as assistant athletic director in the days before his hiring by UA athletic director Frank Broyles in 2000. During this upward climb, Gragg has also maintained a near continuous pursuit of higher education.

While at the University of Michigan, he commuted about an hour two days a week to Wayne State University in Detroit, earning a master's degree in sports administration in 1999. A semester after coming to Fayetteville, Gragg started on a doctoral degree in higher education administration, finishing in 2004.

"Pursuing higher education was a major goal of mine, starting in the home with my mother," Gragg said. "She has three master's degrees, and I used her as a guide, as a model. Once I was finished with my master's, I created another goal for myself."

He chose a doctoral program in higher education because he wanted to have a broad base of knowledge, Gragg explained.

"As an athletic director, typically you are a member of the university president's cabinet, and being in that room – having academic credentials – was important to me," he said.

The experienced faculty members elevate the College of Education and Health Professions' department of educational leadership, counseling and foundations, Gragg said.

"They are seasoned veterans, as I call them," he said. "They have chaired and served on dissertation committees, and they helped streamline the process for me so I was able to complete a 265-page qualitative dissertation in nine months."

And, as his mother's example provided the spark in his early life, the support of his wife, Sanya, uplifted Gragg as he carried out dual roles as UA administrator and student. The couple has three children, De'sha, 12, Avery, 9, and Phillip-Raymond, 5.

Broyles, his former boss, also understood and supported his goals, Gragg said.

He laughed and said he may be satisfied for a while now with three degrees under his belt, although he plans to be back in the classroom within a year or two. He taught in the African American studies department while in Fayetteville and at Wayne State and wants to teach similar courses at Eastern Michigan.

"Having a doctorate from the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas helped me a great deal in obtaining my present position," Gragg said. "It helped me get to my next goal – being the athletic director of a Division I school."

Contact:

Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
(479) 575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu

Page last updated: 7/6/2006 15:03

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