May 2, 2022 • 12 mins
Money Moves is happy to host Dr. Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University.
In this episode, Dr. Kimbrough talks about his path in education and his role as a president. He discusses Dillards decision to remain open during the pandemic and how they've managed to stay safe without any outbreaks.
Guest IG: @hiphopprez
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth, and abundant. Today's guest is an
American academic administrator who has served as the seventh president
(00:22):
of Dillard University. Money Movers, Please, welcome to the podcast.
Dr Walter Kimbro. Hi, Dr kimbro How are you great?
How are you doing today? I'm fantastic, so excited to
have you on our podcast today. We love educators, we
love people that are really serving as influential figures in
our community. So really excited to get to know more
about you. All right, so let's jump in. Can you
(00:45):
tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
through academia. Yeah, so I'm actually a native of Atlanta,
so I always really been excited about what this project is,
and it's interesting when you look at the founders. I
grew up basically about two miles away from Andrew Young's house.
We in the same neighborhood. His son Bo used to
come play football on the street, so we're all a
(01:07):
part of that community together. And then of course I
went to May's High School in Atlanta and Killer Mike
went to Douglas and so I teach him about going
to the lesser of the two out here to speak
for me at dealers. So we've developed a relationship as well.
So yeah, I'm I'm in Atlanta, kiss I West Atlanta,
went the University of Georgia. Thought I was gonna be
a veterinarian, but got turned on the higher education and
(01:30):
decided then I wanted to be a college president. So
I've been working at different institutions, several in Atlanta, Emory
and Georgia State, a state university in southwest Georgia. UM.
I was president of Philanda Smith College in Little Rock
for seven and a half years before getting here Dialer
ten years ago. Wow, that's incredible. You've certainly done the
rounds and put in your time teaching. You know, so
(01:52):
many leaders of our future. So tell us more about
the process of becoming a president in the university, especially,
you know, a university that means a lot. There's a
lot of kids that look up to you. Um, how
do you go about doing that? And did you set
your eyes on being a president at a university from
a young age or did that sort of naturally evolved? Yeah,
(02:13):
I mean it evolved because you know, at my high
school back at that point in time, Atlanta had magnate schools,
and Mays was a magnet for math and science. So
I did all the math and science things and thought
I was gonna be a veterinarian. And one of the
reasons I went to the University of Georgia's because it
has one of the best VET schools in the country.
So I was gonna get into best school early and
then finish up my undergrad degree and become a veterinarian. Well,
(02:36):
I got into best school early, and after about a
quarter I was like, I don't want to do this.
I don't I don't really like this. So I sort
of had this, but I was very involved on campus
and had a chance to meet a college president, the
president of All Corner State in Mississippi, and he said,
you know, this is how you become a college president.
So I sort of got excited about working on campus
and working with young people. So that sort of got
(02:57):
me on that path um to be able to do
this kind of work, and there are different ways. I
worked with an area that we call student affair, so
I worked in residents life and orientation and Greek Life.
I did those kinds of programs. But most presidents really
come just straight from the faculty. But you get a
lot of ranges. People come straight out of business, so
a lot of different areas. But that was my path.
(03:17):
I really found something I really liked doing in terms
of working with students outside of the classroom, and that
was my path to the presidency. Wow. Excellent. So tell
us about some of your proudest accomplishments during your time
as an educator. Oh, that's a really hard question. So
I'm you know here, I think about it. I got
to Diller in two thousand and twelve and you're about
(03:40):
seven years after Hurricane Katrina, so there was still a
lot of work that needs to be done. And one
of the big things we had is at the university
had to get a one hundred and fifty six million
dollar loan to be able to rebuild the campus, but
it was alone. They had to be repaid, and the
way that they had a schedule, it was like there
was no way in the world we're gonna be able
to get that repay aid. So after my first year,
(04:01):
we got a five year forbearance, which meant we didn't
have to pay anything and gave us five years of
work with the government, and then finally in two thousand
and eighteen, we got that loan forgiven. So in terms
of just this we're talking about money, that was the
biggest money move that we could make is to get
a hundred and fifty six million dollars forgiven for the institution.
Uh So I don't think that right, right exactly, So
(04:23):
that's gonna be one of my biggest accomplishments. But you know,
I think over the long term, you know, when you
get to see some of your former students, and I'm
at an age now where I've got some that are
moving into their profession. So one of my students from
Albany State, she became the first woman and the first
black person to be a judge in Augusta, Georgia. Now
Augusta a very diverse city. But I've known her since
(04:47):
she was a freshman, you know, before she got married.
I remember her texting me a picture of the engagement
ring and I didn't say congratulations, and she said, Doc,
you're not gonna say congratulations. I was like, no, because
I don't know him. Good answer, Good answer. We had
to do all of that. I mean, so I went
to the wedding, you know, so all that. So I
just followed her career the whole time. And so I'm
(05:08):
at that point now where I'm really starting to see
this is, you know, the life work is really coming
alive and the things that so that story is not
really a good feeling. Absolutely, that's got to be a
good feeling. Okay. So also tell us about this class
that you have where you've got hip hop artists coming
to speak to students. So MC light was on our
board of trustees and we had this conversation just about
(05:30):
the music. So we had this idea, what if we
had a class that really looked at the lyrics, and
so we framed it in terms of ethics of the
decisions that people made, what's right, what's wrong, what's good,
and what's bad. And in hip hop, there are lots
of different messages that deal with this, so we look
at a lot of different ranges in terms of, you know,
how hip hop talks about men, how we talk about
(05:51):
women the hip hop industry, and how does that you know,
address what's being talked about. Like just yesterday, we had
a conversation with a professor from the university of Richmond,
and they're doing some research to make sure that you
can't use lyrics against people in court. New York is
about to try to pass a law. Wow. Now that's
sting fascinating because if you see, I mean, you know,
(06:12):
the media is always telling some story, but people who
will who will have incriminated themselves in a in a song? Interesting? Right? Yeah?
So there, Yeah, New York is trying to pass a
loss that you can't do that. And one of the
state senators who is leading that cause is going to
speak to my class next week. So I get a
range of academics, hip hop artists. Like I said, Killer
(06:33):
Mike has been the class. We've talked to a range
of artists. Uh, you know, particularly in Atlanta, there is
this real link between hip hops and strip clubs. Hey,
we've had strippers talk about in the class, so we've
dealt with the whole range. Last week we have someone
talk about religion in hip hop. So it's just been
a fun class. Is different every semester because I just
get different folks, but really good way to talk about
(06:53):
what we value as a society and our personal values
and ethics and morals. Interesting. Okay, So I mean you know,
education has changed dramatically. We've come out of this pandemic
where campuses were closed, they were open to this. How
have you been able to navigate COVID in this tumultuous time, right,
So we never closed. We kept students on campus the
(07:15):
entire time because part of one of the surveys we
did with U n c F our students said we
need to be there in person, and we were able
to do some distancing so people could have single rooms
and that kind of thing. But you know, there's more
research that talks about students who are coming to college
who are housing and fullness, So it's not just about
them being in school to get an education. For some students,
(07:37):
this is the safest place for them to be even
during a pandemic. It's a place where they have secure
housing and secure meals as well as getting education. So
for them, they're saying, I had a student email me
to say, look, I know it's a pandemic, but I'm
safe for in New Orleans and I am in Chicago.
That's very powerful sore loss of those So we stayed
open the entire time because it wasn't just about trying
(07:58):
to keep students in school. It was it was on
social services that we provide as well, and we heard
a lot of that. You know, we're based in Atlanta
and so we have you know, everything from Clark Atlanta
to more House to Spellman here and we were working
at the time running a technology accelerator with more House,
and when the pandemic hit, we had the same issues
that were you know, really I think impacted our community
(08:20):
in particular where there wasn't enough bandwidth the internet at home,
or there was no internet at all, or there wasn't
enough PCs, there wasn't enough laptops or tablets for them
to work. And you know, so a lot of different
socioeconomic factors went into you know, how our community is
going to come out of COVID. So I'm sure keeping
your doors open must have been, you know, in a
(08:41):
time of crisis to a big decision, but absolutely a
great one. Yeah, No, for us, it was it was
the right thing. Like I said, we did the survey
with students and even that summer before, you know, I
was talking to group of students you know via zoom
and parents and you know faculty, particularly because you have
faculty who are older, who have co morbidity, so you
want to make sure you're not pushing them. And then
I talked to some parents and I even had one
(09:03):
parent to say, look, my daughter grew so much that
first year, and even though I have co morbidities, she
needs to be there at school. So it was just
overwhelming support for people saying this is the right thing
for us to do. We never had any major outbreaks,
you know, over the last two years, so we we
handled it very responsibly. It's worked out well. Well, kudo
see you. I'm sure that was a high pressure situation
(09:24):
that many of us were in, but also having to
lead a whole entire school campus is a lot. So
congratulations to you. All right, Dr Kimbro As we wrap out,
I would be remissed if I didn't ask you about
your book. Tell us about the book that you wrote. Well,
so part of my research I look at historically black
fraternities and sororities. And this was really a part of
(09:45):
a started as a doctoral student at Georgia State and
really doing some of this research. But to really just
look at black fraternitys and sororities, a deeper history than
some of the basic things that people talk about. Um
so Yeah, that book was done two thousand three. I
think it's like in this twelve or thirty eighth printing,
so it's been very popular. Um. But yeah, that's just
my my personal research interests to see how these organizations operate,
(10:07):
the benefits that can have for students in terms of leadership,
skill development. And then I gets the bad part of
it too. I do expert we just work in haze
in cases, so that's I do a whole the whole
gamut of things in terms of that again, really important work.
So now you're an author, you've been a president of
the campus, you've recently announced your retirement. What's next for you? Well,
(10:29):
so I don't know. So I always tell people listen, no,
I'm doing like Lebron, I'm not retiring. Too young to retire.
So even though I've been I'm in my eighteenth years
of college president because I became a president when I
was thirty seven, so the average age of presidents is
sixty three, so I'm still not I'm not the I'm
not an average ages so I'm too young to retire.
But we'll see lots of different opportunities. Uh, you know,
(10:51):
maybe in the next uh a few hours I might
be announcing something state tuned like all right, right, so
we'll see, but yeah, we'll see what's next. Oh that's exciting. Well,
I'm sure you've got much more up under your sleeve
in the next coming years. Like you say, retirement isn't
what it is. You know, there's been a lot of
(11:12):
these questions in the news about the great retirement, but
a lot of people are just realizing their switching hats,
finding new career paths, you know, really pursuing their passions.
So I'm sure there's much more to come for you. Yeah, exactly. Um,
Dr Kimbro, can you tell folks where they can follow
you on your social media how to connect with you? Right?
So the main social media I use Twitter, Instagram a
(11:34):
lot is at hip hop Praise Praise with the Z,
so you can find me there, and then just my
name in terms of LinkedIn and Facebook, you can find
me there there as well. So those are my my
four main platforms that you'll find me on. Amazing and
money Movers. Please tune in because we're going to have
doctor Kimbro return for a deep dive and we're going
to talk all about money education and how students can
(11:57):
really shape their perspectives on building while from a young age.
So looking forward to having that conversation with you. Dr Kimbro,
Thank you so much again for joining us. All right,
thank you, thank you so much for tuning in Money
Moves audience. If you want more or a recap of
this episode, please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com
and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves
(12:22):
is an I Heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive
produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcast on I
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth, and abundant. Today's guest is an
American academic administrator who has served as the seventh president
(00:22):
of Dillard University. Money Movers, Please, welcome to the podcast.
Dr Walter Kimbro. Hi, Dr kimbro How are you great?
How are you doing today? I'm fantastic, so excited to
have you on our podcast today. We love educators, we
love people that are really serving as influential figures in
our community. So really excited to get to know more
about you. All right, so let's jump in. Can you
(00:45):
tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
through academia. Yeah, so I'm actually a native of Atlanta,
so I always really been excited about what this project is,
and it's interesting when you look at the founders. I
grew up basically about two miles away from Andrew Young's house.
We in the same neighborhood. His son Bo used to
come play football on the street, so we're all a
(01:07):
part of that community together. And then of course I
went to May's High School in Atlanta and Killer Mike
went to Douglas and so I teach him about going
to the lesser of the two out here to speak
for me at dealers. So we've developed a relationship as well.
So yeah, I'm I'm in Atlanta, kiss I West Atlanta,
went the University of Georgia. Thought I was gonna be
a veterinarian, but got turned on the higher education and
(01:30):
decided then I wanted to be a college president. So
I've been working at different institutions, several in Atlanta, Emory
and Georgia State, a state university in southwest Georgia. UM.
I was president of Philanda Smith College in Little Rock
for seven and a half years before getting here Dialer
ten years ago. Wow, that's incredible. You've certainly done the
rounds and put in your time teaching. You know, so
(01:52):
many leaders of our future. So tell us more about
the process of becoming a president in the university, especially,
you know, a university that means a lot. There's a
lot of kids that look up to you. Um, how
do you go about doing that? And did you set
your eyes on being a president at a university from
a young age or did that sort of naturally evolved? Yeah,
(02:13):
I mean it evolved because you know, at my high
school back at that point in time, Atlanta had magnate schools,
and Mays was a magnet for math and science. So
I did all the math and science things and thought
I was gonna be a veterinarian. And one of the
reasons I went to the University of Georgia's because it
has one of the best VET schools in the country.
So I was gonna get into best school early and
then finish up my undergrad degree and become a veterinarian. Well,
(02:36):
I got into best school early, and after about a
quarter I was like, I don't want to do this.
I don't I don't really like this. So I sort
of had this, but I was very involved on campus
and had a chance to meet a college president, the
president of All Corner State in Mississippi, and he said,
you know, this is how you become a college president.
So I sort of got excited about working on campus
and working with young people. So that sort of got
(02:57):
me on that path um to be able to do
this kind of work, and there are different ways. I
worked with an area that we call student affair, so
I worked in residents life and orientation and Greek Life.
I did those kinds of programs. But most presidents really
come just straight from the faculty. But you get a
lot of ranges. People come straight out of business, so
a lot of different areas. But that was my path.
(03:17):
I really found something I really liked doing in terms
of working with students outside of the classroom, and that
was my path to the presidency. Wow. Excellent. So tell
us about some of your proudest accomplishments during your time
as an educator. Oh, that's a really hard question. So
I'm you know here, I think about it. I got
to Diller in two thousand and twelve and you're about
(03:40):
seven years after Hurricane Katrina, so there was still a
lot of work that needs to be done. And one
of the big things we had is at the university
had to get a one hundred and fifty six million
dollar loan to be able to rebuild the campus, but
it was alone. They had to be repaid, and the
way that they had a schedule, it was like there
was no way in the world we're gonna be able
to get that repay aid. So after my first year,
(04:01):
we got a five year forbearance, which meant we didn't
have to pay anything and gave us five years of
work with the government, and then finally in two thousand
and eighteen, we got that loan forgiven. So in terms
of just this we're talking about money, that was the
biggest money move that we could make is to get
a hundred and fifty six million dollars forgiven for the institution.
Uh So I don't think that right, right exactly, So
(04:23):
that's gonna be one of my biggest accomplishments. But you know,
I think over the long term, you know, when you
get to see some of your former students, and I'm
at an age now where I've got some that are
moving into their profession. So one of my students from
Albany State, she became the first woman and the first
black person to be a judge in Augusta, Georgia. Now
Augusta a very diverse city. But I've known her since
(04:47):
she was a freshman, you know, before she got married.
I remember her texting me a picture of the engagement
ring and I didn't say congratulations, and she said, Doc,
you're not gonna say congratulations. I was like, no, because
I don't know him. Good answer, Good answer. We had
to do all of that. I mean, so I went
to the wedding, you know, so all that. So I
just followed her career the whole time. And so I'm
(05:08):
at that point now where I'm really starting to see
this is, you know, the life work is really coming
alive and the things that so that story is not
really a good feeling. Absolutely, that's got to be a
good feeling. Okay. So also tell us about this class
that you have where you've got hip hop artists coming
to speak to students. So MC light was on our
board of trustees and we had this conversation just about
(05:30):
the music. So we had this idea, what if we
had a class that really looked at the lyrics, and
so we framed it in terms of ethics of the
decisions that people made, what's right, what's wrong, what's good,
and what's bad. And in hip hop, there are lots
of different messages that deal with this, so we look
at a lot of different ranges in terms of, you know,
how hip hop talks about men, how we talk about
(05:51):
women the hip hop industry, and how does that you know,
address what's being talked about. Like just yesterday, we had
a conversation with a professor from the university of Richmond,
and they're doing some research to make sure that you
can't use lyrics against people in court. New York is
about to try to pass a law. Wow. Now that's
sting fascinating because if you see, I mean, you know,
(06:12):
the media is always telling some story, but people who
will who will have incriminated themselves in a in a song? Interesting? Right? Yeah?
So there, Yeah, New York is trying to pass a
loss that you can't do that. And one of the
state senators who is leading that cause is going to
speak to my class next week. So I get a
range of academics, hip hop artists. Like I said, Killer
(06:33):
Mike has been the class. We've talked to a range
of artists. Uh, you know, particularly in Atlanta, there is
this real link between hip hops and strip clubs. Hey,
we've had strippers talk about in the class, so we've
dealt with the whole range. Last week we have someone
talk about religion in hip hop. So it's just been
a fun class. Is different every semester because I just
get different folks, but really good way to talk about
(06:53):
what we value as a society and our personal values
and ethics and morals. Interesting. Okay, So I mean you know,
education has changed dramatically. We've come out of this pandemic
where campuses were closed, they were open to this. How
have you been able to navigate COVID in this tumultuous time, right,
So we never closed. We kept students on campus the
(07:15):
entire time because part of one of the surveys we
did with U n c F our students said we
need to be there in person, and we were able
to do some distancing so people could have single rooms
and that kind of thing. But you know, there's more
research that talks about students who are coming to college
who are housing and fullness, So it's not just about
them being in school to get an education. For some students,
(07:37):
this is the safest place for them to be even
during a pandemic. It's a place where they have secure
housing and secure meals as well as getting education. So
for them, they're saying, I had a student email me
to say, look, I know it's a pandemic, but I'm
safe for in New Orleans and I am in Chicago.
That's very powerful sore loss of those So we stayed
open the entire time because it wasn't just about trying
(07:58):
to keep students in school. It was it was on
social services that we provide as well, and we heard
a lot of that. You know, we're based in Atlanta
and so we have you know, everything from Clark Atlanta
to more House to Spellman here and we were working
at the time running a technology accelerator with more House,
and when the pandemic hit, we had the same issues
that were you know, really I think impacted our community
(08:20):
in particular where there wasn't enough bandwidth the internet at home,
or there was no internet at all, or there wasn't
enough PCs, there wasn't enough laptops or tablets for them
to work. And you know, so a lot of different
socioeconomic factors went into you know, how our community is
going to come out of COVID. So I'm sure keeping
your doors open must have been, you know, in a
(08:41):
time of crisis to a big decision, but absolutely a
great one. Yeah, No, for us, it was it was
the right thing. Like I said, we did the survey
with students and even that summer before, you know, I
was talking to group of students you know via zoom
and parents and you know faculty, particularly because you have
faculty who are older, who have co morbidity, so you
want to make sure you're not pushing them. And then
I talked to some parents and I even had one
(09:03):
parent to say, look, my daughter grew so much that
first year, and even though I have co morbidities, she
needs to be there at school. So it was just
overwhelming support for people saying this is the right thing
for us to do. We never had any major outbreaks,
you know, over the last two years, so we we
handled it very responsibly. It's worked out well. Well, kudo
see you. I'm sure that was a high pressure situation
(09:24):
that many of us were in, but also having to
lead a whole entire school campus is a lot. So
congratulations to you. All right, Dr Kimbro As we wrap out,
I would be remissed if I didn't ask you about
your book. Tell us about the book that you wrote. Well,
so part of my research I look at historically black
fraternities and sororities. And this was really a part of
(09:45):
a started as a doctoral student at Georgia State and
really doing some of this research. But to really just
look at black fraternitys and sororities, a deeper history than
some of the basic things that people talk about. Um
so Yeah, that book was done two thousand three. I
think it's like in this twelve or thirty eighth printing,
so it's been very popular. Um. But yeah, that's just
my my personal research interests to see how these organizations operate,
(10:07):
the benefits that can have for students in terms of leadership,
skill development. And then I gets the bad part of
it too. I do expert we just work in haze
in cases, so that's I do a whole the whole
gamut of things in terms of that again, really important work.
So now you're an author, you've been a president of
the campus, you've recently announced your retirement. What's next for you? Well,
(10:29):
so I don't know. So I always tell people listen, no,
I'm doing like Lebron, I'm not retiring. Too young to retire.
So even though I've been I'm in my eighteenth years
of college president because I became a president when I
was thirty seven, so the average age of presidents is
sixty three, so I'm still not I'm not the I'm
not an average ages so I'm too young to retire.
But we'll see lots of different opportunities. Uh, you know,
(10:51):
maybe in the next uh a few hours I might
be announcing something state tuned like all right, right, so
we'll see, but yeah, we'll see what's next. Oh that's exciting. Well,
I'm sure you've got much more up under your sleeve
in the next coming years. Like you say, retirement isn't
what it is. You know, there's been a lot of
(11:12):
these questions in the news about the great retirement, but
a lot of people are just realizing their switching hats,
finding new career paths, you know, really pursuing their passions.
So I'm sure there's much more to come for you. Yeah, exactly. Um,
Dr Kimbro, can you tell folks where they can follow
you on your social media how to connect with you? Right?
So the main social media I use Twitter, Instagram a
(11:34):
lot is at hip hop Praise Praise with the Z,
so you can find me there, and then just my
name in terms of LinkedIn and Facebook, you can find
me there there as well. So those are my my
four main platforms that you'll find me on. Amazing and
money Movers. Please tune in because we're going to have
doctor Kimbro return for a deep dive and we're going
to talk all about money education and how students can
(11:57):
really shape their perspectives on building while from a young age.
So looking forward to having that conversation with you. Dr Kimbro,
Thank you so much again for joining us. All right,
thank you, thank you so much for tuning in Money
Moves audience. If you want more or a recap of
this episode, please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com
and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves
(12:22):
is an I Heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive
produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcast on I
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts from.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!