Coming Home

The Tepper School alumnus David Major returns as inaugural head of DEI&B

As an undergraduate Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) student in the late 1980s and early 1990s, David Major (BS 1992, MBA/MSIA 1996) had a work-study job with the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA). He worked in a basement supply room, selling office supplies such as floppy disks and notepads to master’s students. Major was an engineering student with a strong interest in business, but he didn’t quite feel at home in the GSIA.

For one thing, the word “graduate” was right in the name of the school, and undergraduate students like him seemed like somewhat of an afterthought. For another, Major, who is African American, doesn’t remember ever having an African American professor at CMU.

In February 2023, Major returned to the university as the inaugural Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B) and strategy professor at the now Tepper School of Business to help ensure that everyone has a place at the school.

PUTTING INCLUSION INTO ACTION

Major’s mandate includes implementing the Tepper Together DEI&B Strategic Plan, which was introduced in 2022 and contains four main goals for cultivating diversity at the Tepper School and beyond. “Now, it really comes down to taking that plan and putting it into action,” he said. “How do we make sure that throughout the institution, everything that we do has inclusion embodied in it?”

Major is focusing on engagement of three primary groups who make up the Tepper School: students, faculty, and staff. Under each of these three “spheres of engagement,” he is working to recruit, retain, and develop a diverse and inclusive community.

BACK TO ACADEMIA

Major earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Administration, with an engineering focus, in 1992. He returned to CMU a couple of years later for an MBA (then known as Master of Science in Industrial Administration). He has been an active Tepper School alumnus, and classmates supported his hiring for the DEI&B position.

Major worked as a management consultant and in management for more than 15 years. In 2004, he transitioned to academia, beginning a Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he realized he loved teaching. During the process of exploring Ph.D. programs and next career steps, he sought advice from his former Tepper School professors, including Laurie Weingart. He also discussed his plans with Class of 1996 classmate Dorothy Kirkman, who began a Ph.D. program shortly before he did and is now a professor at the University of Houston-Clear Lake College of Business.

“My classmates from the MBA were especially helpful about the career path that I chose leaving corporate and deciding to go back to school to get a Ph.D. and becoming an academic,” he recalled.

Most recently, Major was a professor and academic director at the University of Miami Business School. One of his most valued accomplishments was creating a residential program that draws aspiring entrepreneurs from historically Black colleges and universities.

In addition to serving as the Tepper School’s Associate Dean of DEI&B, Major is teaching a course on strategy, which he says focuses on how diversity initiatives impact companies.

FULL CIRCLE

Even though Major felt alienated at times, he recalled positive relationships with professors and the chance to meet students from around the world. “If I had the opportunity to do it again and go elsewhere, I’d be right back at Carnegie Mellon,” he remarked.

Now that he is actually back, he said, “I’m still pinching myself.” Major gets a surreal sensation on his daily commute when he passes Morewood Gardens E-Tower, where he lived as a student.

One thing Major doesn’t want to come full circle, though, is the feeling of not quite belonging. “We’ve got to make sure that we have diversity in terms of the student population, but also among our faculty in the front of the classroom, because that makes a difference in terms of whether students are going to feel comfortable coming in,” he noted. Now in his new role, his experience and loyalty to the school will help him promote inclusion and belonging throughout the Tepper School and beyond.

By Suzi Morales