Richard America, professor of practice in the McDonough School of Business, always knew he’d use his economics and business degrees in a different way from his classmates. He says his commitment to his African roots and social change dictated as much.

A leading expert in community revitalization, corporate philanthropy and social marketing, America researches and teaches about economic development in distressed areas and small and medium enterprise development, both domestically and internationally, with an emphasis on Africa.

“I knew I would work on these types of problems … issues involving inequality, both at home and around the world.”

As a young man during the 1960s, the Philadelphia native participated in the civil rights movement; he sees parallels to the struggle for constitutional rights then and development issues today.

“All of my work still to this day is related to the spirit of this movement … to development in the U.S. and globally,” the professor says.

America says everything he’s accomplished in his 30-year career came from those decisions he made early on, but it wasn’t until after he received his bachelor’s in economics from Penn State University and his MBA from Harvard Business School that he realized how he wanted to make an impact.

The Business of Community Development
America moved to Washington in the early 1970s to work in the small business administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Carter administration. It was in government that America found his niche in economic and community development policy work.

“I hadn’t planned on working in government, but I ended up staying for over 20 years,” America says with a shrug.

He became fascinated with the rust belt -- parts of the country that rely heavily on manufacturing and industries such as steel, iron and glass  -- and interested in figuring out how to stimulate entrepreneurship, new business and job creation in those areas where the primary economic base was dying. Today as the current economic turmoil continues and the country’s unemployment rates skyrocket with more layoffs looming for U.S. workers, America’s research is increasingly relevant.

“It’s one of the topics I address in the course I teach -- how business development can help turn distressed areas around,” he says. “The economic problem we face has been here for a hundred years or more, it is just heightened and hitting people that it hasn’t hit before.”

Impact in the Classroom
America joined Georgetown in 1994 to teach community development as an adjunct professor. By 2000, he began working as a full-time professor and established a course on Investing in Africa. The class provides students interested in becoming entrepreneurs, managers, consultants, financial advisers, lenders and investors with a deeper understanding of economic events in Africa.

“I love teaching,” America says with a wide smile. “The students who come to Georgetown have some amazing life experiences -- some have been in the Peace Corps, some have been working in the developing world and some in the nonprofit community. These are the types of students who tend to be attracted to my courses -- the self-starters who have real motivation to make a difference.”

He says he enjoys keeping in touch with his students after they’ve graduated and hearing about their accomplishments in the business world.

“I get e-mails from former students who have been out in the workforce for years, and I invite alumni to guest speak in my class -- it’s a terrific thing to see how far they have come,” America says.

Humphrey Mensah (G’02), one of the more recent guests to speak in the professor’s class, credits America for steering him onto the right business career path.

“I was a finance major at Georgetown and took professor America’s class on business development in Africa as an elective,” recalls Mensah, who now works as a controller for the Calvert Foundation.

Through Mensah’s work with the nonprofit organization, which channels capital into underserved communities around the world, he is able to help build communities and create jobs throughout Africa.

“His class opened my eyes and taught me that I can use business ideas to solve social problems,” Mensah says. “Once your eyes are opened, you can’t really turn back and pretend like you can’t see anymore.”

In addition to his Investing in Africa course, America teaches a class on community development, finance and strategy to full-time and part-time evening MBA program students. The class focuses on building businesses in distressed areas.

“Most people see problems in low-income areas and tend to shy away, but there are entrepreneurial opportunities there if you go about it the right way,” America says. “My class looks at how to build business in distressed cities like Mexico City, Cairo, New Delhi and U.S. cities like New Orleans, Baltimore and Oakland.”

Africa and America
Since the 1970s, the professor has explored the causes of black poverty in the United States and underdevelopment in Africa and other areas of the African Diaspora.

He’s written “The Wealth of Races” (Greenwood Press 2002) and “Paying the Social Debt” (Praeger Publishers 2001), which both focus on poverty in the African-American community. But he also extends his writings to the international level. In his forthcoming book, “Nation Building,” America discusses how to maximize the benefits of economic aid directed toward developing African nations. 

“I have a personal interest in improving the economy in Africa because my roots are there,” says America. “American audiences only get the horror stories about Africa -- civil war, corruption, coups, natural disasters, diseases, starvation and drought -- but there is a lot of good stuff going on in Africa, especially in business development, and that needs more exposure,” the professor says.

“I am trying to use the business tools I know how to use to promote social change -- developing business schools in Africa is part of my contribution to the cause,” America says. “It is my way of having a positive impact on the chronic, tough economic problems.”

In 2006, America began leading an effort to add Johannesburg as a destination for the university’s MBA program’s globalization residency, a core class that immerses MBA students in the culture and business structure of a foreign city. His course on South Africa consists of six weeks of on-campus classes and one week traveling to Johannesburg, where students present their semester projects to client organizations throughout the continent such as IBM Africa, the World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Cup.

“The Johannesburg residency class integrates all the skills students develop in the first year-and-a-half of business school,” America says. “It’s a very rich and intense week for students.”

America is involved in several projects in Africa, including the creation of the Southern Africa Business School Network. The network builds a three-way partnership in Johannesburg with the University of Pretoria, University of Botswana and Georgetown.

The business professor travels and works with more than 40 business schools in South Africa, helping them address teaching, research, public service, curriculum and faculty development.

“We work with our partners as well as the business schools in southern Africa -- which adds up to about a third of the continent, focusing on what it takes to run a good business school. Very few of them have or really know how to do it,” America says.

He believes building up business schools is the key to economic and community development in the region, and the professor would eventually like to start helping schools in East, Central and West Africa as well.

“Richard’s ideas about developing African business schools is incredibly forward looking,” says Scott Taylor, director of African studies at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

The Georgetown professors worked together to help launch the Georgetown African Interest Network (GAIN). GAIN is a universitywide initiative to better communicate Georgetown’s research, training and services that focus on nations and regions in Africa.

“America kept the GAIN working group well-grounded and focused on Africa’s economy, recognizing the contributions Georgetown can make,” says Taylor. “I applaud him for his focus and his help with GAIN. He is building links to help students at the business school engage in Africa events and initiatives on campus, as well as consider careers in helping the African economy.”

America sees his work as part of Georgetown’s long tradition of service to others, and tries to communicate that to his students.

“What I am teaching and researching about -- developing communities and social change -- fits well with the mission, spirit and leaders of the university.”

Source: Blue & Gray