Mujeres with Doctorates

Years later, I found myself pursuing a doctorate. From the day I enrolled until the day I walked across the stage, the journey lasted nine and a half years. Nearly five of those years were spent in the dissertation phase. I entered that phase without a finalized research topic, and over the course of my journey I changed dissertation advisors three different times. Every change meant learning to trust the process again, finding a new direction, and continuing forward when starting over would have been the easier choice. However, I never considered quitting.
I wasn’t pursuing a doctorate for this title alone. I was pursuing it because I knew what it represented. I would be the first person in five generations of my family to earn a doctorate. That realization stayed with me every step of the way.
At the same time, life never slowed down. I continued building my career in public education. I continued showing up for the students, teachers, and communities I served. I continued being a wife and a mother. My family still needed me. My work still needed me. The dissertation became something I worked on in the margins of life – early mornings, late nights, weekends, and every moment I could carve our between the responsibilities I already carried.
What surprised my most wasn’t how difficult the research would be. It was how lonely the journey felt. I wasn’t looking for someone to write my dissertation for me. I was looking for people who understood what it meant to carry the weight of family expectations, professional responsibilities, and personal ambition all at once. I wanted a community of women who understood the emotional side of earning a doctorate – the setbacks, the self-doubt, the victories that only another doctoral student could truly appreciate.
I searched for that community. Sometimes I found pieces of it. Most of the time, I wished it already existed.
The day I successfully defended my dissertation and finally heard the words, “Congratulations, Doctor,” I felt overwhelming gratitude. I had accomplished something no one in my family had accomplished before. That moment belonged to me, but it also belonged to my grandmother, my mom, my husband and children, and every generation that helped make it possible.
Not long after, I made another promise. If I could help even one woman feel less alone on her journey than I had felt on mine, it would be worth it. That promise became Mujeres with Doctorates. Today, Mujeres with Doctorates exists to ensure that women of color pursuing doctoral degrees have what I spent years searching for – community, mentorship, accountability, encouragement, and a place where they are fully understood.
Every dissertation completed represents more than a degree. It represents a family story being rewritten. It represents children who grow up believing that higher education belongs to them. It represents generations of sacrifice transformed into generations of opportunity.
That is the heart of Mujeres with Doctorates. Becoming a Doctora is much more than earning a title. It’s about changing what is possible for the generations that follow.