Q&A with Assistant Dean Elissa Ellis about the Forte Foundation
November 5, 2003

Editor’s Note: The Forte Foundation was established in 2000 with the goal of increasing the numbers of women in business. On November 2, Assistant Dean Elissa Ellis of the MBA Program, the Executive Director of the Forte Foundation, appeared on the Oasis radio show on KOAI-FM Dallas to talk about the Foundation’s origins, achievements and goals.

PHYLLIS SMITH, anchor: Women have made so much headway in the professional world, from medicine to law school, but we haven't made as many inroads in the business world. There is an organization that is destined to change that. It is called Forte Foundation, and representing them today on our show is Elissa Ellis, who is assistant dean of the MBA program at the Red McCombs School of Business. You're calling me from Austin, right?

ELISSA ELLIS, assistant dean, McCombs School of Business: Correct.

SMITH: OK, great. Tell us what the Forte Foundation is, exactly.

ELLIS: The Forte Foundation is a consortium of major corporations, top business schools and influential non-profit organizations. We've gotten together to address an issue that is important to all of us. That is, how to pump women through educational gateways and hiring pipelines toward leadership roles in business.

SMITH: Why was the foundation established?

ELLIS: Well, there was a study that was done called “Women and the MBA: A Gateway to Opportunity.” It looked at why women were underrepresented in the leading business schools compared with medical or law schools. It revealed some fundamental disconnects between the vision that talented women had for their professional lives versus the perception they had of limited opportunities for achievement and personal satisfaction in a corporate workplace. These results basically led a number of schools and companies to get together to evaluate the situation and see what we could do to change this perception.

SMITH: So how long has the foundation been around?

ELLIS: It's been around for about three years.

SMITH: Have you made any inroads yet?

ELLIS: Well, we feel like this is kind of a long-term commitment—it's definitely something that all the schools are committed to. The headway we feel like we have made is that we have a lot of great programming and opportunities for women to participate. The reputation of Forte Foundation is definitely out there. The name recognition is becoming more apparent in the audience we're looking to reach.

SMITH: Have you discovered why fewer women go to business schools instead of medical or law schools?

ELLIS: The perceptions from the study were that women have negative perceptions of what it took to actually get into business schools versus medical and law schools, and felt that once they got there, all of the effort to get there wouldn't have been as satisfying as it would have been if they went to law or medical school.

SMITH: Well, also women are really a special breed. In one particular way, if women want to have to have children, for example, they really need flexibility. Is there a perception among women that if they get an MBA or go into some line of business that they won't have the flexibility they need to make that choice to have kids?

ELLIS: Absolutely, I think, because business schools ask them to go back out into the workforce and get three to five years of experience before returning to an MBA program. That definitely puts them in a different stage of their life when they are coming back. Also, I think there is a perception that the business world is not flexible like other possible careers. We're trying to combat that. We’ve had many events where our alumnae have come and spoken to the women, and they definitely said that their MBAs have given them more flexibility in their career and the ability to do creative types of things like own their own business, do part-time consulting or step out of their career for a couple of years and re-enter fairly easily, because of that MBA that they have next to their name.

SMITH: Do you think--I mean, how important is an MBA when it comes to being hired by a company?

ELLIS: Depending on what your career goals are, it's very important. Certain industries have very specific criteria for moving up through the chain of command in a company, so if you are thinking about consulting or investment banking, an MBA is a necessity. It also gives you a credential that allows people to say, this person has a certain level of education and experience and knowledge about business. So it does open doors that might not otherwise be open to you.

SMITH: What services does the Forte Foundation provide to women?

ELLIS: Right now, we do a variety of things. We have a Forte Forum in about eight cities across the country, where we bring different alumnae from all of the schools to participate in a panel discussion. Women are able to ask them questions about their experience in business. We have an admissions workshop during that time where school representatives come and talk to the women about how to get into business schools. We also have a Forte Internship Symposium, where all of our interns from the participating companies get together in New York and have a day-long seminar on how to improve their opportunities in business. We have Forte Fellows, which gives women entering an MBA program a scholarship. Each school has committed to supporting two to three women at a significant cost reduction for their MBA. Those are the three main things that we've done so far.

SMITH: Scholarships as well, right?

ELLIS: Yes. The Forte Fellows are scholarships. In addition to the funding that they receive from the schools, they also receive some non-monetary benefits. We're trying to give them more access to our alumni base, more access to school administration, and also access to each other, so that they have a community of Forte Fellows to communicate with at other schools.

SMITH: You know what? There was a time in my life when I actually looked into getting an MBA and then—I wasn't part of any business; I was actually self-employed. The cost is astronomical. There is no way I would have been able to do it.

ELLIS: Right. It is an expensive proposition and those scholarship funds definitely help.

SMITH: How much, for example, would you fund someone's education?

ELLIS: The range depends on the school, because everybody’s tuition is a little different. But what we try to do is reduce the cost so significantly that it really makes the financial barrier not a problem anymore. So some of the schools have given up to $20,000 scholarships per year and others have given maybe smaller amounts, but there have been tuition waivers and things that makes the cost of the education fairly manageable for the women.

SMITH: How do you qualify for that?

ELLIS: All of the schools make the selection based on their own scholarship process. At some schools, everybody is eligible for scholarships, so we review all applications equally and select the top candidate to receive those scholarships. But everybody has a little bit of a different process.

SMITH: Now, a top candidate would be somebody who has some experience in the business world?

ELLIS: Yes, most of the—or actually, all of the schools require you to have some amount of work experience. That can range from two years to fifteen years. What you look at in an application is definitely an overall package. So you are going to list their work experience, the quality, the type, the lead, you’re going to look at their GMAT scores, the average grade point average, you’re going to review the interviews that they've had with an alumni or school representative, and you are also going to look at their essay. So there are a lot of things that they can factor in to make that decision.

SMITH: What are some of the schools that are part of the Forte Foundation?

ELLIS: There are about thirteen schools. They are the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin, also the Olin School at Babson, Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, the Kellogg school at Northwestern, Tuck School at Dartmouth, Chicago, Yale, and many other schools.

SMITH: Some big names.

ELLIS: Yes, they're a very prestigious group of schools.

SMITH: All right. Well, thank you so much and if people want to contact you, Elissa, or the foundation, how do they do that?

ELLIS: They can go to the Web site at www.fortefoundation.org.

SMITH: OK, that's F-O-R-T-E foundation.org. Is there a phone number?

ELLIS: There is not a phone number, but there is an email to several different people depending on what they are looking for. The website is very straightforward.

SMITH: Now, when they get their MBA, how many specialize in a particular area or is it basically overall?

ELLIS: All different schools have a variety of offerings, and they can pick the school that they most want to attend and the area of specialization that best fits their needs.

SMITH: Very good. Elissa Ellis from the Forte Foundation, she's assistant dean of the MBA program at the Red McCombs School of Business. That's at UTA right?

ELLIS: UT Austin.

SMITH: UT Austin. Hello, UT Austin. Thank you so much for joining us.

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