Charting HBCU pathways from HBCU to PhD and beyond
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (October 13, 2026) – Prairie View A&M University, with Yale University, is leading a pivotal initiative to explore and chart pathways for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students from PhDs to the professoriate. Prairie View’s partnership with Yale University will investigate the barriers, buffers, and best practices that shape whether students at HBCU go on to earn a doctorate in engineering — and ultimately enter the professoriate.
The project does not simply chart a path; it also explains why so few travel it. By analyzing both the barriers that stall students and the practices that propel them, this investigation offers something the field has lacked: a complete picture of what a successful pathway actually requires, from the undergraduate classroom to the graduate lab to the faculty office.
The stakes are significant. Black engineers make up just 5% of the profession nationally, project collaborators say.
For the initiative, Prairie View’s Fred A. Bonner II, EdD, founding executive director of the Achievement, Research, Creativity, and High-Ability Center (ARCH-III), has secured a $125,000 Faculty Collaboration Grant from Yale’s Alliance for Scholarship, Collaboration, Engagement, Networking and Development (ASCEND) initiative.
Dr. Bonner, with Michael Loewenberg, PhD, professor of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, will lead the two-year project, HBCU Yale Pathway to the PhD and Professoriate in Engineering (HYP³E).
“The Yale ASCEND Initiative provides me with an opportunity to collaborate with outstanding colleagues across the Prairie View and Yale campuses to explore innovation, research, and engaged scholarship that will lead to new and novel approaches to creating pathways to student success,” Dr. Bonner said.
The project’s research proposal identifies PVAMU as the third-largest producer of Black engineers in the country, a distinction the University is positioned to build on by translating its undergraduate and graduate strengths into new institutional knowledge about what makes HBCU-to-PhD pathways work.
To that end, the Achievement, Research, Creativity, and High-Ability Center (ARCH-III) has named two postdoctoral research scholars: Dr. Alexis Dionne Hooker and Dr. Corey Jordan Gray.
Dr. Hooker’s research focus is to develop understanding of culturally responsive teaching through equity literacy-focused instruction. Dr. Gray’s research focus includes culturally responsive gifted education and the creative potential of historically marginalized learners.
Findings from the project are expected to inform not only Yale’s engineering pipeline but pathway initiatives across the education landscape nationwide, delivering critical insight into the pathways that will shape the future of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
Conducted through a mixed-methods approach across two distinct phases, the research will examine both the obstacles and the enabling conditions that shape these pathways — building a rigorous, evidence-based foundation for strengthening the pipeline.
The award runs through June 30, 2027.
By Christine Won