Dr. Rebecca Williams has been in the Army for 22 years and decided to apply to Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies to expand the research and analytical skills she learned throughout her military career.
“I researched other iSchools around the country. Syracuse was the only one at the time that offered the hybrid distance learning program, which was appealing,” said Williams, a deputy director and data systems engineering officer in the U.S. Army. “Other programs would have required me to take a break from serving on Active Duty, and I was not ready to take off the uniform.”
The Army encouraged her to seek diverse professional development opportunities, so she decided to earn an IT-related master’s degree and consecutive doctorate.
As an information scientist, Williams is fascinated by the way people learn, share, use and create information. She wanted to research how people who grew up in immigrant households learned about financial literacy. The topic is close to her heart since her parents emigrated from Haiti in the mid-1970s and raised nine children (two adopted), who were all born in the U.S.
“I chose to study this problem from the Haitian American perspective because there is not much research about how the idiosyncrasies of our Haitian culture influence our lived experience in the United States,” she said. “I know that financial literacy is a significant issue in our community, so I wanted to highlight the long-term effects of restrictive cultural norms on our finances.”
Williams defended her thesis, “The Impact of Sociocultural Barriers on Haitian Americans’ Financial Literacy,” and graduated with her D.P.S. degree in May. She was selected by the iSchool faculty and staff to win the 2024 Doctor of Professional Studies award for excellence in doctoral research.
“I chose this topic because I saw first-hand how my immigrant parents were dependent on community-based knowledge centers to acculturate and learn about life in America. It did not happen all the time, but sometimes their sources of financial information were insufficient, inaccurate or predatory,” she said. “I hope that my thesis research generates a dialogue among policy makers at the national and international level. Perhaps one day I can expand my research to study the sociocultural barriers to information access of other U.S.-born children of immigrants who are wearing the uniform.”
Williams is grateful she was accepted into Syracuse University’s Doctor of Professional Studies degree program and says the faculty and students were supportive of her throughout her entire journey. That support was especially helpful after she found out she was pregnant with her second child the same day she was accepted into the program. Williams says her iSchool classmates and professors helped her during her pregnancy and after she gave birth.
“Throughout this program, all I kept hearing from the cohort and the iSchool staff was ‘How can I help?’” she said. “Anytime I felt overwhelmed, they gave me what I needed, whether it was more time, resources or a sounding board. This is important, because we face many challenges as mothers. Mom guilt is very real.”
“I hope my kids can look at my military and academic career and be proud of me,” Williams said. “I want my parents to know that their sacrifices were not in vain and to show my kids that I am not only their mom, but I am a wife, a Soldier, an athlete, a coach, and now I’m a doctor.”