Orkand Fellowships "Just What the Doctors Ordered"

Donald Orkand (center), president and CEO of the Orkand Corporation, congratulates doctoral students James Malm (left) and Loyce Pailen (right) for their $15,000 awards as Orkand Fellows in UMUC's new Doctor of Management program.

By Andrea Martino

Two Doctor of Management (DM) students have been named UMUC's first Orkand Fellows in a program being touted as "just what the doctors ordered." The new degree program is considered by many to be more valuable than a typical PhD because of the DM's interdisciplinary approach to management.

Loyce Pailen, of Beltsville, Maryland, and James Malm, of Woodstock, Maryland, will each receive annual awards for three years, totaling $15,000, thanks to a contribution of $30,000 to the UMUC doctoral program by Donald Orkand, president and CEO of the Orkand Corporation, of Falls Church, Virginia. The students' selection was based on scholarly works they submitted that were considered exceptional for their relevance, knowledge, style, and mastery of subject matter.

Pailen, a UMUC alumna who earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University, is a second-year student, specializing in technology and information systems. She recently retired from the Washington Post Company as director of information technology after serving there for 28 years.

Malm, a first-year DM student from Woodstock, Maryland, has been chief administrative officer for continuing education and economic development at The Community College of Baltimore County since 1999. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University.

"The Orkand Corporation considers it a privilege to support Loyce and James in their educational pursuits," said Orkand. "These two outstanding fellows are working towards their doctoral degrees at a superb institution."

UMUC's DM program is one of only a few nationwide. It differs substantially from typical PhD programs, which focus very strongly on one curriculum of study and do not necessarily emphasize how that function interrelates with others at modern organizations. For that reason, the DM's more applied focus, rather than solely a research-oriented or theoretical one, is slowly making its way into existing doctoral programs, as professors nationwide take a critical look at the PhDs offered by their universities.

According to a national survey of 32,000 doctoral students nationwide, conducted by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation last year, one common criticism was that those programs provided "little practical training for nonacademic careers."

A similar study, conducted by University of Wisconsin–Madison researcher Chris Golde at 27 universities, said "doctoral education is 'unnecessarily mysterious,' with up to two-thirds of students unclear about how their coursework applies."

"It's unrealistic in today's job market to get into a doctoral program that would prepare me only for teaching in college," said Pailen. "The Doctor of Management is a more well-rounded program, and there won't be any disappointments about opportunities available to me in many fields when I graduate."

Orkand, a member of UMUC's Board of Visitors, founded the Orkand Corporation in 1970 to provide information systems and analytical services to a wide range of public- and private-sector clients from across the United States and overseas. It is an $80 million company with more than 1,100 staff members at 34 locations in 20 states and in Washington, D.C.

Orkand earned a Bachelor of Science, MBA, and doctorate, all in statistics and economics, from New York University.