BY KIM SMART
Married Chicago School graduates Bobby Carter, Ph.D., and Brenda Carter, Ph.D., or “BC2” as they like to say, are a dynamic duo. Brenda is a culture strategist and organizational psychologist with over a decade of HR leadership. Bobby is a successful change management consultant who has helped guide Fortune 100 and Fortune 10 companies with global change strategies, retention, and business transformation. While initially a play on their initials, the nickname “BC2” is appropriate for the work the Carters are doing. Their power to help organizations and individuals has been exponentially strengthened by the many challenges and changes they’ve had to navigate themselves as individuals, parents, and graduate students.
Both had difficult childhoods and transitions into adulthood. Brenda experienced trauma as a child and knew that education was her ticket to a better future. She went to college, dreaming of being a lawyer, but got pregnant her freshman year. Determined not to be “a statistic,” she took just one semester off after giving birth to her daughter, then returned to school full-time while working and parenting, ultimately completing her degree in pre-law.
Bobby struggled in high school and got his diploma at an alternative school. A week after graduation, he moved to New York to live with his cousins and uncle. He spent a year adapting to a very different culture from the South, then attended community college and got an associate degree in marketing. He then went on to get his bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Their paths finally crossed at a church event. What was initially just a friendship forged by attending LSAT classes together quickly grew into love. Within a year, they were married. Nine months later, Brenda gave birth to twins.
“I already had my daughter, which Bobby had taken on as his own, and it was like mayhem with all three,” she joked. Yet the resilience and perseverance they’d gained during their childhoods and young adult years helped them through it and would continue to do so.
While they were adapting to life with three children, the recession was hitting New York hard. The week they learned they were having twins, Bobby got laid off. He was underemployed for a time after that, frustrated that although he had the same degree and skills as others, he wasn’t getting the same opportunities. “There’s a high level of resilience that’s engrained in us as Black people, but you really have to turn it up when you’re getting so many ‘nos.’” After reaching out to one of his vendors, he was offered a job in Dallas, so they packed up and moved.
They’d also moved away from their plans for law school. With the twins now two, they both turned their focus to getting their master’s degrees in organizational leadership at Mercy University. “My mind was just blown with leadership. My world just opened up,” Brenda says.
But the road wasn’t easy. “We had no family here, no one to help. We didn’t even have money for books,” Brenda says.
“We used to pull the car up really close to the Barnes & Noble to get their free Wi-Fi signal so we could do our research and submit our assignments,” Bobby added. And juggling it all was hard. They’d take turns doing homework and caring for the kids.
After graduation, they moved back to New York, where they both worked in change management. Brenda landed a job as global HR COE leader at PepsiCo
While at PepsiCo, Brenda had a rare one-on-one with CEO Indra Nooyi, who shared her journey and the systemic barriers she faced as a woman of color. The conversation inspired Brenda. Soon after, a colleague introduced her to The Chicago School and the field of Industrial-Organizational Psychology. She applied and was a accepted to the Ph.D. Business Psychology: Industrial and Organizational Track. “I’ve always had an appetite to learn,” Brenda says. “I knew it would be challenging, but I also knew I’d rise to meet it.”
Brenda loved her classes and discussions, and her passion for what she was learning inspired Bobby’s doctoral journey. “I looked at the Business Psychology curriculum and was impressed by the consulting track,” he says. “The cohorts, the discussion groups, they were filled with professionals at the top of their game, some from Fortune 50 companies. That spoke volumes to me about the type of talent they’re bringing in to be part of the program.”
Brenda and Bobby earned their Ph.D.s together at the 2024 Dallas commencement. Partners through it all, they were side by side as best friends, spouses, parents, and avid supporters of each other. “We’ve created a strong foundation we can build almost anything on top of. And it will stand,” Brenda says.
“Our kids were part of the journey too,” Brenda says. “One of the biggest things we’ve taught them is to learn their learning style. The other is perseverance. It’s not always about the low-hanging fruit. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get to the top of the tree, but the reward is so great.”