Tami McHugh, DBA, a graduate from the School of Business and Management, already had a career before beginning her studies at CalSouthern — owning a business. As an established real estate broker, she believed that earning her doctorate at CalSouthern would not only provide her with additional credibility as she led her company but also serve as a way to further exemplify her unique capabilities.
While writing her Doctoral Project, A correlational study of real estate licensee education, production, and longevity in the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service, McHugh realized that she was the only real estate agent in her multiple listing service — a network of real estate brokers that provides data about various properties for sale — who had a doctorate in Business Administration. She was curious to find out if having a doctorate would increase her sales production.
This inspired the work in her Doctoral Project, where she found that real estate agents with a bachelor’s degree or higher produced significantly higher sales volume than those with a high school diploma. With the results of this study, McHugh created a tool for brokers to use when recruiting as a way to identify the agents with the highest likelihood of producing better results in a shorter amount of time.
Upon the completion of her project, McHugh was hired by Columbia College and Columbia Southern University as an adjunct professor to develop and teach a course in real estate finance. It has always been a goal of McHugh to teach at the university level as a way to “give back” to those who have helped her along her journey.
Now, working as an adjunct professor at two universities while continuing to own her real estate firm, McHugh attributes fulfilling her life-long goals of earning a doctorate and giving back to the community to CalSouthern’s flexible class schedules and affordable tuition.
After earning her doctorate at the age of 57, McHugh urges people not to let age be an excuse when pursuing their goal of higher education.
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